They’re ready to move in together.
Office Space
Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has grown so close to president-elect Donald Trump that he’ll be moving with him — well, sort of — following next week’s inauguration.
Musk, who was put in charge of a so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) last year by Trump, is expected to be assigned space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House complex and a five-minute walk from the West Wing, the New York Times reports.
That’s despite the fact that DOGE is an entirely advisory body and not an actual government “department.”
The news again highlights the incredibly cozy relationship between Musk and Trump — and, more generally, between corporate America and the White House in what critics including the outgoing president Joe Biden are calling the rise of American oligarchy.
On a separate level, the arrangement again raises a question pertinent both to Trump’s foes and allies: after Musk spent an unprecedented hundreds of millions to get the real estate tycoon into office, who’s really calling the shots?
Never Let Me Go
The department Musk will be co-leading alongside pharmaceutical CEO Vivek Ramaswamy is anticipated to be run out of the office block. Currently, its staff are working out of SpaceX’s offices in Washington, DC.
According to an announcement last year, DOGE will be tasked with slashing government spending, a process that will involve the examination of highly classified contracts.
While DOGE’s purported objective is to slash a whopping $2 trillion from the federal government budget, Musk has since attempted to manage expectations, admitting that the department is more likely to only cut half that amount.
The mercurial entrepreneur has barely left Trump’s side since the election, going as far as to occupy a cottage near Trump’s property in Mar-a-Lago — an overbearing presence that has annoyed Trump’s aides and allies.
Nobody knows how far DOGE will manage to get in its attempt to butcher the federal government’s budget, and Musk’s personal role remains a subject of debate. Becoming a “special government employee” would force Musk to disclose financial relationships, according to the NYT.
If he were to forgo such a status, Musk would be required to hold public meetings and make any DOGE documents available to the public.
Trump is also a notoriously fickle partner; whether or how long the bromance will survive the turbulent Trump administration is anybody’s guess.
After being sworn in as president, Trump will likely have little time and energy for Musk’s enormous need for attention — a reality that could put additional strain on the unusual father-son-style duo.
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