Donald Trump and Elon Musk Headed to SpaceX Rocket Launch

Trump and Musk in Butler, Pennsylvania, on October 5.
Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP Photograph

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been awfully shut ever because the former president received his third bid for the White Home two weeks in the past. At a UFC occasion at Madison Sq. Backyard on Saturday, Trump sat subsequent to his latest billionaire backer within the entrance row, the place he needed to remind Musk to cease laughing at stuff on his telephone and take note of the combat. At Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, Musk has arrange camp, calling himself the “first buddy,” taking conferences with the president, and even getting his personal theme music at dinners with membership members.

Now the primary buddy tour is heading to south Texas, and this time Musk is the star of the present. On Tuesday at 5 p.m., Trump is anticipated to hitch him at a rocket launch on the SpaceX facility minutes from the Mexican border. SpaceX is conducting its sixth take a look at of its Starship rocket — the mannequin Musk hopes will ultimately ferry astronauts to Mars. Already, it’s the strongest rocket ever constructed and can quickly be used to launch the most recent era of Musk’s bigger Starlink satellites. With the president-elect watching, Musk hopes that his engineers will be capable to recreate the success of their launch in October, when a pair of mechanical arms referred to as the “chopsticks” caught the rocket booster in midair, permitting for reuse.

Musk, who spent $119 million on a pro-Trump PAC this election, has seen his web value surge by greater than $62 billion prior to now two months. Most of that progress is because of a surge of Tesla inventory after Election Day from traders betting on a Trump administration being good to his corporations. With over $15 billion in federal contracts at SpaceX alone, Musk would have been carefully entwined with the federal government whatever the election consequence. Underneath Trump, he’s now the co-chair of the brand new Division of Authorities Effectivity — an advisory committee with the purpose of slashing federal spending that, presumably, has nothing to do along with his personal contracts.

Not everybody on the transition group is as comfortable as Musk about this new association. As Musk lobbies for cupboard appointees and tariff insurance policies, different advisers are reportedly pondering that the richest man on the planet is overplaying his hand. Musk has reportedly gotten right into a shouting match with adviser Boris Epshteyn over cupboard picks. One supply advised the Washington Put up there was a sense that Musk is now performing as “co-president,” including “individuals are not comfortable.”