By Helen Coster and Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk has been using his social media platform X to go to bat for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks and promote his own preferred candidates, advocating for choices he views as change agents who will help remake the U.S. government.
In several high-profile cases, however, Musk backed people who either lost out on the roles or withdrew from consideration, suggesting some early limits to the Republican mega donor’s influence even as he has emerged as one of Trump’s most powerful allies.
Musk, who has 206 million followers on X, posted or reposted about Trump’s cabinet picks more than 70 times between Nov. 7 and Nov. 20, a Reuters review found.
Though the posts represented just a fraction of his more than 2,000 posts during that period, Musk in many cases used them to give attention to Trump’s most controversial choices, including former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for U.S. intelligence chief and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the top U.S. health agency.
Musk most enthusiastically rallied support for Matt Gaetz, the former congressman Trump initially tapped to be his attorney general.
In the days following Gaetz’s Nov. 13 nomination, Musk posted 37 times about Gaetz or his wife Ginger, mostly in positive terms. That was far more than his posts about Trump’s other appointments.
Gaetz backed out of consideration on Nov. 21, saying his candidacy had become a distraction for Trump amid allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug abuse. He has denied wrongdoing.
For Trump’s Treasury secretary, Musk pushed for Wall Street financier Howard Lutnick over hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, whom Musk dismissed as “a business-as-usual choice.” Bessent got the job anyway.
And in a separate fight over Senate leadership, Musk’s endorsed candidate also came up short.
One Trump ally said those misses showed the limitations of Musk’s sway.
Musk’s reach on X “doesn’t mean he’s an effective advocate for his positions or chosen cabinet members,” the Trump ally said. “He’s still learning how to operate in politics.”
Spokespeople for X and Musk did not respond to Reuters requests for comment for this story.
Musk, who owns X and rocket company SpaceX and is chief executive of the electric car company Tesla Inc., poured at least $119 million into getting Trump elected and has been a near-constant fixture at Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, since his election victory earlier this month.
The two men attended an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in New York and a SpaceX launch in Texas, and Musk traveled with Trump to Washington for his meeting with President Joe Biden.
On Saturday, Musk reposted a photo that showed him sitting with Trump, Lutnick and Republican Senator Joni Ernst at Mar-a-Lago, where they were discussing cabinet nominees, according to the caption.
“Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team.
Musk’s close proximity to Trump has prompted some hand-wringing and complaints from the transition team, who were not accustomed to him being around so much, according to two sources close to Trump staff.
Amid increased scrutiny of his unusual role, Musk wrote in a post on X on Nov. 20 that while he had offered his opinion on some candidates, he was not in charge.
“Many selections occur without my knowledge and decisions are 100% that of the President,” Musk said.
EFFICIENCY AND EMOJIS
Musk’s political posts on X far outnumbered those he used to promote his three businesses, the Reuters review found.
He frequently mocks liberals and posts about government waste and Trump’s newly created government efficiency panel, which the president-elect tapped Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead.
Musk’s typical posts consist either of an emoji or a short response to other posts.
“Exactly,” he wrote on Nov. 14, in response to a post noting that Trump’s cabinet picks were “young outsiders” who “skipped the line.”
He responded with “Awesome” and a smile emoji on Nov. 13 to a post that said: “They put Tulsi Gabbard on a terror watchlist. Now she’s Director of National Intelligence. The biggest ‘F you’ to the Deep State Swamp.”
On Nov. 16, as questions swirled about who Trump would pick for his Treasury secretary, Musk wrote on X that Bessent was “a business-as-usual choice,” while Lutnick would “actually enact change.”
Musk also lobbied against Bessent internally, two sources close to Trump said.
His efforts fell flat. On Nov. 22, Trump tapped Bessent for the job.
Earlier in the month, Musk threw his support behind Republican Senator Rick Scott for Senate majority leader. Trump chose not to weigh in, and Scott ultimately lost to Senator John Thune for the position.
One source close to Musk was struck by Musk’s willingness to stick with Trump even after he’s been “shut down a couple of times” by the president-elect.
“That’s very rare for a billionaire,” the source said. “In general when they don’t get what they want, they walk away.”
The source said Musk was committed to Trump’s government efficiency efforts.
“He’s really focused on the goal,” the source said.
Another test of Musk’s influence lies ahead. Since the election, he has posted six times in support of Trump loyalist Kash Patel running the FBI.
Patel, who served on Trump’s National Security Council during his first term, has promised to go after politicians and journalists perceived to be enemies of Trump. Musk’s X posts make clear that he sees Patel as the best option for change and reform.
On Nov. 14, Musk posted a “100%” emoji in response to a clip of Patel saying that he would shut down the FBI’s headquarters on day one of Trump’s new administration and reopen it as a “Deep State Museum,” with the caption “Make him FBI director.”
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Ned Parker; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell)
