Elon Musk Helped Elect Trump. What Does He Expect in Return?

Even before Donald J.Trump was re-elected, his best-known backer, Elon Musk had come to him with a request for his presidential transition.He wanted Mr.

Trump to hire some employees from Mr.Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, as top government officials — including at the Defense Department, according to two people briefed on the calls.That request, which would seed SpaceX employees into an agency that is one of its biggest customers, is a sign of the benefits that Mr.

Musk may reap after investing more than $100 million in Mr.Trump’s campaign, pushing out a near-constant stream of pro-Trump material on his social media platform, X, and making public appearances on the candidate’s behalf across the hard-fought state of Pennsylvania.The outreach regarding the SpaceX employees, which hasn’t been reported, shows the extent to which Mr.

Musk wants to fill a potential Trump administration with his closest confidants even as his billions of dollars in government contracts pose a conflict to any government role.Mr.Musk and executives at SpaceX and Tesla, his electric-vehicle company, did not respond on Wednesday to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Mr.Trump’s transition team also did not respond to a request for comment.The six companies that Mr.

Musk oversees are deeply entangled with federal agencies.They make billions off contracts to launch rockets, build satellites and provide space-based communications services.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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