Elon Musk Is Already Driving Everyone Insane

Elon Musk is starting to clash with Donald Trump's team on some of the president-elect's key issues, especially tariffs.

reports that Musk is trying to persuade Trump regarding Cabinet picks and economic policy, drawing the ire of the president-elect's other advisers. On Saturday, Musk praised Argentine President Javier Milei in a post on X for cutting tariffs in his country. The central pillar of Trump's economic program is tariffs.

In another post later on Saturday, Musk endorsed Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump's transition team and CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, for the post of treasury secretary over hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who is in the running for the position. Both posts from Musk aren't going over well with the rest of Trump's team.

"People are not happy," one person in contact with campaign officials told the anonymously. Musk's posts seemed to reflect that the tech CEO and world's richest man was acting like a "co-president" and beginning to overstep his role, the person added.

Musk's praise of Lutnick, for example, came before any public statements from the campaign or any announcements from Trump. Musk also called on his followers to weigh in with their opinion on the Cabinet position, which might send a message that he thinks Trump needs some convincing—or pressure.

There is also friction between Musk and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, with Axios reporting that the tech mogul thinks Epshteyn, who has pushed for appointments such as Matt Gaetz as attorney general, has too much influence over Trump's choices. Musk has questioned the qualifications of Epshteyn's preferred candidates, irking the longtime Trump adviser.

These disagreements reportedly came to a head last Wednesday at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, where Musk and Epshteyn had an angry exchange at a dinner table. Musk even accused Epshteyn of leaking details about the Trump transition to the media, which Epshteyn denied.

If Musk gets into a turf war with other members of Trump's team as Trump's new presidential administration takes shape, he already has a big advantage. The tech CEO pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump's campaign, and the president-elect has already included Musk in many important meetings, as well as a phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy just after the election. Last week, Musk even took part in a private meeting with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, raising questions of whether it was on Trump's orders.