‘First friend’ Elon Musk has holed up at Donald Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago club as the president-elect shapes the agenda for his second term.
The Tesla billionaire, who has been a vocal Trump supporter since July, has even participated in high-risk meetings while reportedly “renting” a $2,000-a-night cabin just outside the main residence.
The world’s richest man, and co-chairman of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been busy arguing with both liberals and conservatives on social media in recent days.
But Musk has become something of a tenant at Trump’s famous Florida club and is expected to return soon.
The Tesla CEO has been staying in a cabin called ‘Banyan’ that rents for $2,000 a night and was once used by former House Speaker John Boehner, not far from the main house.
This allows Musk to visit Trump as often as he wants and attend his meetings with several important people, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
He and his mother Maye even spent Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago with the Trump family and stars like Sylvester Stallone, prompting Trump to joke that Musk won’t be leaving.
Musk has often been seen in staff meetings and even on phone calls with dignitaries.
‘First Friend’ Elon Musk (pictured right) rents a $2,000-a-night cabin at Mar-a-Lago as he works as Donald Trump’s closest ally ahead of the president-elect’s second term.
The Tesla CEO has been staying in a cabin called ‘Banyan’ at Mar-a-Lago that he rents at a rate of $2,000 a night in a cabin once used by former House Speaker John Boehner, not far away. from the main house.
The head of Tesla and social media giant X also invited his employees to join the transition team, the New York Times reports. Its workers have been part of Trump’s vetting process to hire top administration officials.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has also been visiting Mar-a-Lago frequently since the election.
Musk’s first stay at Mar-a-Lago began around Election Day before leaving briefly for the Christmas holiday.
However, he is expected to return soon to help in the final weeks before the inauguration.
Musk usually has at least two of his children with him. Shivon Zilis, a former Neuralink employee who was the mother of one of her 11 children, was also at the facility along with her babysitters.
While the $2,000 per night fee is a past estimate, it’s unclear if Musk has had to pay yet, as Trump often doesn’t charge people to stay there until they leave.
Trump doesn’t seem to mind the company, sending a cryptic message to his billionaire tech friend on Friday, hours after a brutal social media debate over immigration blew up in his face.
Musk is less Trump’s ‘adopted son’, as some joke, and more a tenant of his famous Florida club.
President-elect Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to watch SpaceX’s Starship mega rocket take off for a test flight from Starbase in Texas.
‘Where are you?’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. ‘When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe’, Mar-a-Lago?
Trump also claimed that Musk’s billionaire rival Bill Gates had asked to visit him on Friday night.
‘We miss you yax!’ Trump wrote, presumably referring to Musk’s son, X Æ A-Xii, known as X. ‘New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT.’
The public post, which was apparently directed at Musk, sparked speculation that it was intended to be a direct private message to the billionaire.
Trump and Musk have not commented on the deal.
He was last seen with Trump at the Army-Navy football game in Maryland on December 14.
Trump joked about the controversy during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest.
Musk has since blown up a proposed Republican spending deal by criticizing it in X, causing an uproar in the House of Representatives and nearly shutting down the government.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has also stayed at Mar-a-Lago frequently since the election.
Democrats responded by publicly claiming that Musk was the “real” president controlling Trump and the Republicans in Congress.
“No, he’s not going to be president, I can tell you that,” Trump said of Musk. And I’m safe. Do you know why it can’t be? He was not born in this country.
Musk was born in South Africa.
Trump’s latest social media message to Musk came after the billionaire got into a heated conversation about importing skilled foreign tech workers on H1-B visas, claiming it was essential for the growth of tech companies.
“The number of people who are super talented AND super motivated engineers in the United States is too low,” Musk wrote, warning of the “severe shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in the United States.”
Musk shared several posts about X defending the need for skilled foreign labor.
‘There is an ongoing shortage of excellent engineering talent. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” he wrote.
Musk asked his followers to consider American companies that try to recruit the best talent for their organizations as if they were a sports team.
Trump speaking at Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest in Phoenix on December 22
‘If you force the best talents in the world to play for the other side, the United States WILL LOSE. End of story,’ he wrote.
But Musk’s critics argued that American companies abused H1-B visas to bring in foreign workers instead of hiring qualified American workers.
Both Trump and his running mate JD Vance have campaigned on the idea of reforming the H1-b visa program to prioritize American workers.
‘I know H1-b very well, it’s something I use and I shouldn’t be allowed to do it, we shouldn’t have it. “Very, very bad for workers… it’s very bad for our workers and very unfair to our workers and we should put an end to it,” Trump said in 2016.
Trump has made several jokes since the election about how he can’t get rid of Musk, who became an important ally, fundraiser and organizer of the president’s successful campaign over Kamala Harris.
In During the House Republican conference meeting at the Capitol, Trump reportedly joked, “Elon is not coming home.”
‘I can’t get rid of him. Until I don’t like it.
Sitting front and center of the meeting. He was the richest man in the world, Musk.
Musk has been a near-permanent fixture at the center of Trump’s transition since the former president won the 2024 election with considerable campaign help from the businessman.
Trump’s granddaughter Kai has even nicknamed Musk “Uncle Elon.”
It comes after Trump announced that Musk will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency alongside 2024 Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump said in his statement that he would pave the way for his administration to dismantle “government bureaucracy” and that that would be “potentially the ‘Manhattan Project’ of our time.”
“We finally have a mandate to remove the mountain of suffocating regulations that do not serve the common good,” Musk wrote Wednesday on X, which he also owns.
But the move has also been met with criticism as Musk’s companies have tangled with the very agencies he will now deal with directly.