A year ago now, a few weeks after obtaining his second major electoral victory, Donald Trump He decided that it was more entertaining to count the days he had left to return to the White House in the company of his best donor: Elon Musk.
The South African tycoon, considered the richest man in the world on every imaginable list, had invested more than $288 million in favor of the Republican Party during the 2024 election cycle and now came the prize: hanging out with the next president of the United States at his home in Palm Beach. That famous resort called Mar-a-Lago.
The last weeks of 2024 also served to outline what Trump defined as the “Manhattan Project of our time”; an allusion to the research work carried out by the United States during World War II that resulted in the first nuclear weapons.
This time it was not about war weapons, Trump clarified, but about a gigantic chainsaw (metaphorical) baptized as the Department of Government Efficiency and that will go down in history by its acronym: DOGE. Your goal? Cut the mass of federal workers – that is, civil servants – to a minimum and thus try to improve the dynamism and efficiency of the different Government apparatuses.
For this, Musk and Trump agreed to add the businessman from the biotechnology sector Vivek Ramaswamy to the adventure. They also agreed that both Musk and Ramaswamy would report periodically to the new director of the Budget Office, Russell Voughtof his achievements. Vought, it should be noted, was a person who had long advocated radical cuts to the federal framework. He was, in short, a sympathizer.
Fall in popularity
Following the logic previously applied to many of his companies, as soon as Trump returned to the White House, the South African billionaire began to pass the scissors without a hint of moderation.
DOGE began an unprecedented offensive on federal agencies, eliminating workforces and dismantling entire organizations. Including the famous United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, seen by Trumpism as an unnecessary and, above all, absurd expense for Americans despite its potential as a diplomatic tool.
Such a wave of cuts, added to the performances of Musk himself, who appeared at Republican Party gatherings brandishing real chainsaws, soon made him quite unpopular within Trump’s team as well.
There were those who felt, in short, that he was going too far and in Congress itself he began to be received with enormous rejection. Also by Republican Party legislators.
“He was used to behaving like an emperor,” he commented a few days ago to the Washington Post a Musk collaborator (who spoke to the capital newspaper on condition that his name not appear). Precisely for this reason, this person adds, he never gave in to “political intrigue” and, consequently, “he was not respected in Congress.”
The latter, added to how his public image was negatively affecting one of his companies, Tesla, contributed to his withdrawal from the political front line at the end of last May. Much earlier than initially agreed with Trump.
By then his confrontations with several first swords of the Trump team –Scott BessantSecretary of the Treasury; Marco RubioSecretary of State; a powerful White House advisor named Sergio Gor…– had already become a matter of public interest (and the talk of countless political correspondents).
Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, this Tuesday at the White House.
Reuters
He affair to Isaac
The confrontation between Musk and Gor was not the most striking from a media point of view, but it was the one that had the most consequences. Mainly because on Musk’s last day as a special government employee Gor provided Trump with documents showing that a billionaire named Jared Isaacman – linked to SpaceX, another of Musk’s companies, and his choice to lead NASA – had donated money to the Democratic Party.
Gor knew that Trump would not boost the career of someone who did not share his ideology and that is why it did not surprise anyone – except Musk – that upon learning of these donations he decided to withdraw Isaacman’s nomination to NASA. Something that Trump announced through his own social network: Truth Social.
Three days later, Musk publicly attacked – in an interview with the network CBS and also through his own social network: X– against the tax and immigration legislation coined by Trump known as One Big Beautiful Bill and a little later, in June, he accused the president of appearing in the files linked to the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The confrontation between the two reached such a point that a month later, in July, Musk announced that he would found a new political party in order to “return freedom” to the citizens of the United States. He said he would call it the Party of America.
Upon learning of the announcement, a part of the MAGA ecosystem – that is, Trumpism – was petrified. At that point in his mandate it was well known that Musk was not a good asset in political terms given his unpopularity. His money, however, was still useful. Very useful. Furthermore: founding a party with the intention of contesting the territory of the Republican Party promised to fragment the American right.
Vance to the rescue
By then J.D. Vance He had been trying to reduce the tension between Musk and Trump for some time. Partly out of friendship – the vice president and the South African tycoon are old friends thanks to sharing acquaintances in Silicon Valley – and partly because Vance has political aspirations within the Republican Party that go far beyond Trump himself.
It is rumored, in fact, that he could run as a presidential candidate in 2028. And for that it would be very good to have the richest man in the world on his side.
The fact is that, as revealed by an investigation carried out by three journalists from the Washington Postwe now know that Vance has spent months on the phone contacting, on the one hand, people close to Musk and, on the other, prominent figures in the Republican Party. The objective: calm the waters, recover cordiality and, above all, bury Musk’s political project in the last possible drawer.
It has not been an easy task. “When Elon speaks there are two possibilities,” a former collaborator of his told reporters from the capital’s newspaper. “Either he’s telling you what he’s going to do or he’s trying to be funny.” The Party of America thing, this person adds, “didn’t sound like a joke.”
However, through calls and meetings, Vance managed to get Isaacman reappointed to command NASA (he has just been officially appointed to the position). In addition, he managed to get Sergio Gor removed from the White House and sent to fill a position abroad. Both of these things softened Musk’s stance.
However, when it came to getting Musk back into the fold, Vance had two circumstances in his favor that were totally unrelated to his maneuvers. On the one hand, the people whom the South African tycoon approached within the Republican Party to design his own political project did not want to enter the game. Secondly, and above all, is the murder, on September 10, of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event held at a university in Utah.
What’s more: during the event held in memory of Kirk, journalists observed Trump and Musk talking and shaking hands. Musk later posted a photo of the interaction on his social media with the following text: “For Charlie.” The White House retweeted the message.
According to people close to him, that tragedy was the last push when it came to strengthening ties again with important people within the Republican Party.
Throughout those weeks he even expressed his desire to actively participate in politics again, although assuming a more discreet role. At the end of 2026, let us remember, the United States will hold the midterm elections – the famous midterms – that will determine which party will control the Senate and the House of Representatives, that is, Congress, during the last two years of Trump’s term. Your money could come in handy.
“The efforts made by Vance and other White House officials for months have paid off,” the investigation stated. Post. “After ruling out mounting a third party, Musk reappeared at the White House last November to attend the dinner held in honor of the crown prince. Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia”.
Shortly after that invitation, Musk privately revealed that he is considering rescheduling his donations to the Republican Party not only for the midterms but also for the presidential elections of 2028… and the presidential elections of 2032. In both, according to the magazine Politico After agreeing to conversations he has had with several collaborators, he wants to see his friend Vance win.