For Trump, Elon Musk Is aLiability, but Still Useful for Now

Elon Musk made himself the face of a humiliating political defeat in Wisconsin on Tuesday night.He’s rubbed cabinet members the wrong way and alienated several advisers close to President Trump.

Republican lawmakers face angry questions about Mr.Musk’s influence from their constituents when they return to their districts.It will come as a relief to many in Mr.

Trump’s orbit when Mr.Musk completes his 130-day service as a special government employee, which according to federal law is due to end in late May or early June.But the president has no intention of cutting ties with the world’s richest man, even after he leaves government, according to two people with knowledge of the president’s thinking.Mr.

Musk has become, for better or worse, an essential component of both Mr.Trump’s political operation and the broader Republican Party apparatus.

He’s the party’s moneyman, having committed $100 million to Mr.Trump’s outside groups, on top of the nearly $300 million he spent on the 2024 election.

And he controls the most important media channel in G.O.P.politics — the website X, formerly known as Twitter — which makes Republicans terrified of getting on his bad side.At a closed-door J.P.

Morgan conference last week in Montana, Mr.Musk was asked by the investor Michael Kives how long he believed his “bromance” with Mr.

Trump would last, according to a person in the room.Mr.

Musk, speaking via Zoom before a group that included his foes such as Sam Altman and Reid Hoffman and allies such as Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, said he would be finished with most of his work in “three to four months.”Mr.Trump genuinely likes Mr.

Musk, according to people who have observed their private interactions and have discussed their relationship with the president.Mr.

Trump has also foreshadowed Mr.Musk’s departure in the past two weeks, saying publicly he expects Mr.

Musk to leave government “at some point” to go back to his companies, and pri...