Elon Musk’s rapid advancement in President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle upset many old-timers who felt iced out as Trump is always with the Tesla CEO who is also influencing the cabinet picks that Trump has been announcing. But this is not a simmering anger, there was a major outburst at the dinner table at Mar-a-Lago when Musk countered Boris Epshteyn — a top adviser who reportedly pushed contentious Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
Axios cited sources who confirmed that Epshteyn has been bristling at Elon Musk questioning the qualification of Epshteyn’s candidates. “At one point during what the sources describe as a ‘massive blowup’ and a ‘huge explosion’, Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking details of Trump’s transition — including personnel picks — to the media. Epshteyn responded by telling Musk that he didn’t know what he was talking about,” Axios reported.
‘It was not a surprise’
To Trump’s senior staffers, the outburst was not a surprise as tensions have been brewing at transition meetings. And given Trump’s love to pit his confidantes against each other, many people saw this coming. Epshteyn — who coordinated the legal defense in Trump’s criminal cases — was a big influence in Trump’s presidential appointments last week, Axios reported. Musk is making a late push for Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to be treasury secretary.
Elon Musk is always there, First-buddy, uncle
Many in Donald Trump’s inner circle, especially Trump’s family members, like having Elon Musk around. Vice president-elect JD Vance is one of them apart from Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. Elon Musk was included in Donald Trump’s family photo, Trump’s granddaughter Kai called him uncle and Elon Musk accepted his new unofficial position as ‘First Buddy’ — and then there is his official position as co-chief of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he will be heading with Vivek Ramaswamy and it is not part of the government.
But Musk’s involvement in the transition process has begun to wear on people who have been in Trump’s inner circle longer than he has and who see him as overstepping his role in the transition, NBC reported earlier.
