Roughly a dozen Republican strategists with close ties to the administration spoke to the Washington Examiner about the Trump-Musk dynamic, with opinions splitting into two opposing camps.

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Most GOP operatives downplayed any tension between the two men, with multiple claiming Musk, in his capacity as chairman of the Department of Government Ethics, is serving as a de facto “shield” for the president as he moves to implement his agenda.

“The president has put in play a once-in-a-lifetime, transformational change, right? But he has Elon out there as a lightning rod, and Elon loves it,” one strategist claimed. “He’ll take all the slings and arrows. What Elon does for the president, he allows the president a lot more kind of wiggle room to kind of maneuver as these things are rolling out, these dramatic, transformational changes. It actually is very helpful for the president to have someone like Elon doing what he’s doing so aggressively.”

“But will that play out without bumps and bruises and, at times, hurt feelings? No. Of course not. It’s not going to be a smooth ride,” the strategist added.

On the other hand, a slight minority of the Republican strategists who spoke to the Washington Examiner believe that Musk has already outworn his welcome at the White House but that the president has few options for cutting bait as he did with Musk’s former DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy.

“I think it’s already an issue. It becomes a question of whether Trump has any power,” one GOP strategist told the Washington Examiner following Musk and Trump’s impromptu Oval Office press conference last week. “I just don’t know how Trump gets rid of him.”

That 30-minute question-and-answer session, spilling out of Trump’s signing ceremony for an executive order helping to implement what the Department of Government Efficiency is calling its “workforce optimization initiative,” saw Musk repeatedly field questions from reporters while Trump remained seated behind the Resolute Desk. Musk’s son was also present for the exchange, and he appeared at certain points to “shush” Trump.

“President Trump’s greatest skill, he called it the ‘weave’ on Joe Rogan, is this voracious appetite to engage with the media, even in the face of full-on attacks from the fake news,” a second strategist suggested. “It lets him set coverage and narratives on his own terms, so if Elon Musk is now the guy answering all the questions, will the president just sit back and let him? I seriously doubt it.”

“But here’s the catch,” that strategist continued. “The base absolutely loves what DOGE is doing right now, so how do you sell canning the guy at the top back to MAGA, especially when that same guy is the richest man in the world who helped you win back the White House in the first place? If he goes through with it, will he lose a little support from the voters?”

Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump’s 2016 political ascension, used even more forceful words to describe Musk in a Tuesday interview with UnHerd.

“Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant,” Bannon claimed. “He wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values, or traditions.”

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Whatever the truth of their relationship may be behind closed doors, the president and his new lieutenant claimed during their pre-taped interview with Hannity that their dynamic hasn’t changed at all.

“Oh, I see it all the time. They tried it, then they stopped,” Trump responded when asked by Hannity about alleged efforts to drive the president and Musk toward “divorce.”

“It’s just so obvious. They’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it. They’re actually bad at it because if they were good at it, I’d never be president because I think nobody in history has ever gotten more bad publicity than me,” he continued. “It’s like the craziest thing.”

Fox News specifically released that section of the interview as a preview over the holiday weekend, a fact that wasn’t lost on the strategists interviewed by the Washington Examiner.

“It looks an awful lot like the president is turning to his most trusted primetime option to try to beat back these ‘shadow president’ rumors,” one strategist claimed. “You know what they say. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Trump and Musk are ostensibly trying to reduce the $300 billion that the federal government spends on its 2.4 million employees every year, excluding active-duty military, United States Postal Service personnel, and money for pension programs, after the expiration of Trump’s Day One hiring freeze.

Last week’s executive order directed agency heads to coordinate and consult with DOGE to “shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions,” with the Office of Personnel Management initiating a rule to ensure employees are held to the highest standards of conduct. The order exempts personnel and functions critical to national security, public safety, law enforcement, and immigration enforcement.

“Upon expiration of the Day 1 hiring freeze and implementation of the hiring plan, agencies will be able to hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service,” the order states. “Agencies will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law.”

But Musk and Trump’s 30-minute question-and-answer session with reporters was more noteworthy. Reporters peppered Musk with questions while Trump sat largely ignored behind the Resolute Desk as Musk’s child with singer-songwriter Grimes, Little X, distracted both men with his antics. 

During the exchange, Musk defended DOGE, contending that “the people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get.” The entrepreneur also conceded he has made mistakes.

“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected,” Musk said, adding of his son, “Gravitas can be difficult sometimes.”

Days later, Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House, across the road from the White House, before Modi’s bilateral meeting with Trump. Trump was asked in what capacity Musk met with Modi.

“I assume he wants to do business in India,” Trump said.

A week earlier, Musk and DOGE dominated another foreign leader trip to the White House, this time that of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. During a joint press conference meant to underscore Trump’s deal between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, the president was repeatedly questioned about Musk and DOGE as his aides assessed more of the federal government.

“Democratic lawmakers are really upset that Elon’s engineers have access to Treasury and other systems,” Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked. “They are used to disburse millions each year and have access to citizen’s social security numbers. Why does DOGE need all that?”

“Have you directed Elon Musk to review Pentagon spending?” NBC News’s Peter Alexander followed up.

Musk also overshadowed Trump’s deal with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son through which the trio agreed to spend at least $500 billion to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S. under the name Stargate. 

Musk, who helped found OpenAI and previously served on its board, undercut the deal, which Trump described as “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential.”

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote on his social platform X. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”