Tech billionaire Elon Musk was handed a major win Tuesday evening when President-elect Donald Trump announced that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” with Vivek Ramaswamy.

The announcement reinforces the closeness that Musk appears to have has managed to achieve with Trump, even after the election. But for some people in Trump’s orbit, Musk’s presence has felt overbearing. 

Musk has been so aggressive in pushing his views about Trump’s second term that he’s stepping on the toes of Trump’s transition team and may be overstaying his welcome at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the transition who have spent time at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort over the past week. 

The sources said that Musk’s near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago in the week since Election Day had begun to wear on people who’ve been in Trump’s inner circle longer than the tech billionaire and who see him as overstepping his role in the transition. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. 

“He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it,” one of the people said of Musk. 

“And he’s sure taking lots of credit for the president’s victory. Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen. He’s trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. And the president is indebted to no one,” this person added. 

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. 

In a statement, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”

Musk traveled to Mar-a-Lago to watch the election returns come in last Tuesday night, and he’s been there much of the past week, the two sources said. They said Musk is there at all hours, sitting with Trump and joining calls and meetings. 

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been involved in sensitive conversations, even before his role in the administration was announced, including briefly joining a phone call last week between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

An adviser to Trump said that Elon Musk would join Trump in a meeting Wednesday with Republican lawmakers ahead of leadership elections.

The second person said that Musk has an “opinion on and about everything,” and that he shares them so forcefully that he’s begun to pester Trump insiders.

“He wants to be seen as having say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” this source said. 

The individual said that some Trump advisers said they were concerned that Musk didn’t understand one key to being effective in Trump’s world: keeping a low profile. Musk’s engagement has been overly aggressive and may hurt his standing in the long run, the source said. 

The second source also said that Musk appeared to be pushing his own agenda, instead of focusing on Trump’s. They said that while Musk is clearly a smart and capable person, the transition is about ensuring those loyal to Trump will be the ones carrying out government policies. 

“Appointing people because they are loyal to Elon doesn’t work,” the source said. 

Musk has been among Trump’s most energetic supporters. His super PAC spent more than $152 million to elect Trump and other Republican candidates, with much of the money coming from Musk himself. He held rallies for Trump in battleground state Pennsylvania, offered $1 million daily giveaways for registered voters and turned his social media app X into a megaphone for Trump. 

In posts on X in the past week, Musk has pushed various policy ideas including deporting immigrants and slashing government spending. 

“Very productive day of work by the transition team,” Musk posted Monday night, in a response to Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, one of the two advisers leading the transition. 

Musk has also shared photos from Mar-a-Lago, including a photo with him and the extended Trump family. On Sunday, one of Trump’s grandchildren, Kai Trump, posted a photo on X of herself with Musk, writing that Musk was “achieving uncle status.”

Musk’s private jet landed in West Palm Beach, near Mar-a-Lago, last Tuesday and was there for about 24 hours, according to the @ElonJet account on Bluesky that uses publicly available flight data. The plane took off from West Palm Beach last Wednesday and headed to Austin, Texas, where Musk has a home, but then it landed again in West Palm Beach on Friday and has been there for the four days since, according to the account. It’s not clear whether Musk was on the jet for every flight. 

The relationship between Musk and Trump has been rocky over the years, despite their recent alliance. Musk said in 2022 that Trump should “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” prompting Trump to hit back at the time that Musk would be “worthless” without government subsidies. 

There’s been intense speculation about the long-term viability of the relationship between Musk and Trump, given the ambitions and personalities of the two men, with many people on social media predicting an eventual falling-out between the two. 

But Musk has already gained since the election in one respect: Tesla’s share price has risen more than 15% from last Wednesday’s opening price, outpacing the 1.8% growth in the S&P 500 over the same time period.