The forecast keeps getting worse for Elon Musk. Call it campaign burnout or a battle of egos, but Donald Trump made an announcement that emphasized the growing rumors that he is trying to put as much distance between himself and Musk as possible. For context of their growing divide, Trump first mentioned his playful annoyance with Musk when Newsweek reported that in an address to House Republicans, Trump joked, “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him — at least until I don’t like him.” Their frenemy rumors were further solidified when Trump completely snubbed Musk while making his dramatic entrance on inauguration day.
But now Trump is bringing his passive-aggressive push to get Musk away from him into the workplace. The New York Post reported that at a press conference, Trump shot down rumors that Musk would get an office in the West Wing near the president, spinning it into a positive by saying, “He’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure these [executive orders] get implemented.” Rumors of Musk’s hopes for better office proximity came after The New York Times reported that he had been given a badge for White House access and was angling to be closer to Trump instead of stationed at his planned outpost in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he would take up his Department of Government Efficiency duties.
With Musk’s hopes squashed, it sort of feels like Trump is doing the thing where you move a coworker you don’t like farther and farther away until one day Musk ends up in the basement with a red stapler. Or who knows, maybe the Eisenhower building is just more efficient.
Elon worked really hard to befriend Trump
If Donald Trump is going full mean girl and cutting Elon Musk out of his inner circle, given how close the two appeared to be, we might be able to add Trump to Musk’s list of failed relationships. After all, the two have a true love-hate history, with Musk even calling the thought of Trump receiving the Republican presidential nomination in 2015 “a bit embarrassing” during a Vanity Fair event. But fast forward a few years, and according to The Washington Post, the richest man in the world did not like the Biden administration giving him the cold shoulder while investigating a number of his companies, so he decided to make a swift U-turn on his political ideology and endorse Trump. And let’s not forget Musk getting really mad about that one tweet Biden made.
Musk quickly became a fixture on Trump’s campaign trail as he joined him onstage at rallies and even gave him a memorable endorsement at Madison Square Garden (remember “dark gothic MAGA?”). The billionaire also put his money where his mouth was, with CBS News reporting that Musk donated $277 million to Trump and other Republican candidates in 2024.
Now, Musk touts himself as a brilliant businessman, so we’re curious to see what his performance analysis will be after giving Trump months of his time, energy, and over a quarter of a billion dollars only to be snubbed and told to go sit somewhere else. We’re just cheeky entertainment journalists, but it’s starting to look like a bad investment.
