4 days ago
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Elon Musk plays many roles with President-elect Donald Trump. He is Trump's most important donor, most influential social media promoter and a key adviser. For most of the time since Election Day, he has also been Trump's tenant.
Musk has been using one of the cottages available for rent on Trump's property at
Mar-a-Lago
, the former Marjorie Merriweather Post home in Florida that Trump converted into a members-only club and hotel in 1990s, according to two sources.
The cottage where he has been staying, named Banyan, is several hundred feet away from the main house, according to a person who knows the property.
Staying right on the grounds has helped give Musk with easy access to Trump. He can drop in on Trump's dinners, such as one he had recently with Musk's rival, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Musk, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in the final months of this year's election cycle to help elect Trump, has attended personnel meetings in the Mar-a-Lago Teahouse, sat in on calls with foreign leaders and spent hours with Trump in his office.
Musk is not the only member of the president-elect's inner circle who has been bunking on Trump's property. Vice-President-elect
JD Vance
has stayed in one of the cottages at Mar-a-Lago when he has been in Palm Beach and has been there frequently during the transition, a person with knowledge of his stays said. And others are said to have used cottages since Election Day. But few have been as omnipresent as Musk.
Trump has bragged to people that Musk - the world's richest man - is "renting" one of the residential spaces at Mar-a-Lago. It is unclear how much Musk will end up paying for the cottage, which historically has rented for at least $2,000 a night. Officials at the club do not typically bill guests until the end of stay, leaving open the possibility that Trump will choose not to charge Musk, or to reduce the size of his bill. But Trump is not known to shy away from income opportunities.
Musk moved into the cottage around Election Day and watched the returns at Mar-a-Lago with Trump. He left the property around Christmas and has been expected to return in the coming days. On Friday, in a post on Truth Social that seemed intended as a private communication to Musk, Trump wrote: "Where are you? When are you coming to the 'Center of the Universe,' Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year's Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT."
Some of Trump's advisers have privately griped about how much influence Musk has had on the transition and how inseparable he is from the president-elect. Musk is unlikely to have such unfettered physical access to Trump after the president-elect is sworn in on Jan. 20 in Washington. Coming and going in the West Wing is more onerous than at Trump's private clubs, as is access to the White House residence.
