Mr. Musk has been using one of the cottages available for rent on Mr. Trump’s property at Mar-a-Lago....If Musk is paying Trump $2000 a day for the 75 days between Election Day and Inauguration Day, that's ... $150,000. It would be very nice money for a normal person, but it's a rounding error for someone who's supposed to be a billionaire. (I know all of you think Trump is flat broke, but Forbes says he was worth $6.1 billion just before Christmas.)
Mr. Trump has bragged to people that Mr. Musk — the world’s richest man — is “renting” one of the residential spaces at Mar-a-Lago. It is unclear how much Mr. Musk will ultimately end up paying for the cottage, which historically has rented for at least $2,000 a night, according to a person with knowledge of the fees.
Meanwhile, Musk's net worth has increased by $170 billion since Election Day, according to The Washington Post, on the assumption that his closeness to Trump will be very good for his companies.
So to sum up: there's been a twelve-figure windfall for Musk and a six-figure windfall for the World's Greatest Dealmaker.
But that's Trump for you. Remember how much money he squeezed out of the Secret Service for protection while he was at his own properties during his first term? By the standards of global kleptocracy, it wasn't much money at all: $2 million, according to the investigators at CREW, or half a million dollars a year. It's outrageous corruption, but it's also petty kleptocracy. Real kleptocrats extract billions from the private sector. Not that long ago, some people believed that Vladimir Putin was the richest man in the world. Trump isn't even in the Top 500, according to Forbes.
Of course, Trump may be hoping for a bigger windfall: earlier this year, he asked Musk to buy Truth Social, which would net him billions, and some observers think a merger of Truth Social and X might still happen. But I assume it will never happen -- Trump will keep hoping it will happen, while Musk will continue dangling the possibility of a sale or merger in order to stay in Trump's orbit. Surely Musk knows that you can bamboozle Trump that way for a long time -- Trump has been dreaming about building a Trump Tower in Moscow for decades, and even though it's never happened and apparently never will, the dream helps keep him close to Putin, which is highly advantageous for the Russian leader.
The Times story absurdly predicts that Musk's proximity to Trump might not remain as close as it is now:
Mr. Musk is unlikely to have such unfettered physical access to Mr. 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 Mr. Trump’s private clubs, as is access to the White House residence.Oh, please. If Trump is still besotted, or still dreaming of a big payout, Musk will probably settle in at the Waldorf-Astoria in D.C., which Trump reportedly wants to buy back so he can turn it into a Trump hotel again. He'll also keep paying that tab at Mar-a-Lago and rent a room at Bedminster.
Maybe Musk will get a guest bedroom at the White House instead. Trump can't legally charge money for that, as far as we can tell, but who knows what the Supreme Court would say?
And I'm sure Musk will do as he pleases at the White House. If security has to be relaxed in order to make his comings and goings frictionless, then it will be relaxed. Rules and regulations are for losers.
Musk might wear out his welcome with Trump. But if all the trouble he's already stirred up hasn't offended Trump yet, then I still think it's a long-term relationship.
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