'Going rogue': MAGA operatives say Musk 'on a 'collision course' with Trump

05 February

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump may be poised for a public falling out in the near future, according to several right-wing political operatives in Trump's orbit.

In a Wednesday article, WIRED published quotes from several unnamed Republican operatives in Washington that the outlet granted anonymity to speak at length. Nearly all of WIRED's sources confided to journalists that the latest actions by Musk's representatives — like taking de facto control of the government's human resources agency and the systems that manage roughly $6 trillion in annual payments — are apparently ruffling the feathers of top Trump advisors. Some of them are now reportedly approaching those closest to Trump and asking for help controlling Musk.

This reportedly includes White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who staffers have approached asking her to intervene to rein in the billionaire CEO. Wiles has so far not spoken out publicly about Musk's team gaining access to the federal employee database and the Treasury Department's payment systems.

"Some of it is, she’s gotta balance being the gatekeeper to the president and having Musk kinda going rogue on a lot of this stuff," one Trumpworld operative said. "I think she’s very smart and very talented, and very loyal to President Trump, so she’ll think about how to navigate that best."

Publicly, Trump has said that Musk is only carrying out orders from the White House, and that he has no power to act independently. And one unnamed Republican told WIRED that the administration is "entirely enthusiastic" about what Musk has done so far. But another source described as a "ride-or-die MAGA Republican operative who knows President Trump personally" said a clash is likely sooner rather than later.

“There could be a collision course coming here at some point,” the source said in response to questions about how Trump's inner circle is reacting to Musk. “He’s getting too big for his britches.”

Another Republican confirmed that there were conversations among people in the president's orbit, but that conversations about Elon Musk were considered a third rail.

"Off the record — yeah, I’ve heard about some of this," the source said. "But, look, as of now, I’m gonna keep out of the space between the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful man."

Musk's efforts to reshape the federal government are under the auspices of his "Department of Government Efficiency," which is not yet an official federal agency authorized by Congress. He has proposed cutting $2 trillion in federal spending, which he would likely be unable to do without touching mandatory spending, which includes earned benefits like Social Security and Medicare along with veterans' benefits and interest payments on federal debt.

However, now that his employees have gotten administrator-level access to the Bureau of Fiscal Systems' payment infrastructure, Musk's team theoretically has the power to turn off payments to anyone it wishes. After gaining control of payment systems last weekend, WIRED reported that the tech CEO's staffers can now "log into servers through secure shell access, navigate the entire file system, change user permissions and delete or modify critical files."

Click here to read WIRED's full article (subscription required).

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