Donald Trump is reportedly considering Elon Musk for an advisory role during a possible second term, deepening the already present ties between a new Trump administration and the nation’s wealthiest business owners.
Per The Wall Street Journal, the pair correspond by cell phone multiple times per month and, according to people familiar with their talks, "the role hasn’t been fully hammered out and might not happen," but "the two men discussed ways to give Musk formal input and influence over policies related to border security and the economy."
Trump and Musk met in March to discuss the possibility of a donation from the Tesla CEO, looking to close the gap in cash reserves between Trump and Biden. But the potential job is a new indication that Trump wants to give the ultra-wealthy an even closer hand in government affairs.
X Corp. CTO Musk, in recent moves to rebrand himself as a staunch conservative, has reportedly alienated key demographics who purchase electric vehicles and plunged Tesla sales in the process. His political interests have centered immigration, restrictions on transgender rights, and the economy.
His claim that undocumented immigrants were laying the “groundwork” for a terror attack was parroted by Trump in his Bronx rally, proclaiming that migrants were prepping an “army.”
Musk is also a fan of Trump-aligned transphobic rhetoric, banning the word “cisgender” from Twitter after far-right pundits attacked the term.
Musk has so far opted not to officially tip the scales, writing in a post on X that he was “not donating money to either candidate for U.S. President” as of then.
Still, Musk, who re-activated Donald Trump’s Twitter account after the site’s previous management had shut it down following the January 6th insurrection, is a powerful Trump-world figure.
