Inside the Trump adviser wars at Mar-a-Lago: Dinner bust-ups with Elon Musk over Cabinet picks and aides turning on one another
For a while, Donald Trump‘s transition kept up a record-setting pace with top Cabinet picks being named against a backdrop of calm consensus.
But the knives are now out, with advisers leaking against each other to the press amid the scramble to parachute allies into plum jobs.
‘Winning helped make everything better for a bit but this is still politics and there are always scores to settle and axes to grind,’ said a source familiar with the workings of Trump’s inner circle.
In the most widely publicized example, Axios was tipped that Tesla founder Elon Musk and Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn had a ‘major blowup’ during dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week.
The report claimed Musk bristled at Epshteyn’s influence on Cabinet picks and accused him of leaking details to the media, charges he vociferously denied.
At the same time, Musk’s new role as ‘first buddy’ to Trump, has irked others in the circle who hope that he soon falls out of favor with a boss who likes there to be only one center of attention.
A transition source played down the story, saying Epshteyn and Musk had a good relationship and had dined frequently at the same table.
Even so it comes as other Trump loyalists express irritation at Musk’s growing influence as well as his public comments on appointments and policy.
President-elect Donald Trump took Elon Musk to Madison Square Garden on Saturday for a UFC fight. They are seen here with Kid Rock (right)
Boris Epshteyn was ever present with Trump through his New York criminal trial earlier this year and traveled on Trump’s private jet during the campaign
Business at Mar-a-Lago on Monday was expected to focus on the big economic and finance jobs outstanding, such as secretaries of the Treasury
At the same time, other advisers are gunning for Epshteyn who was seen as a key player in promoting Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
Epshteyn assembled Trump’s legal team for his New York criminal case, and two of those lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emile Bove, have landed top Justice Department positions.
The result is a bitter wave of briefing against him.
‘Boris is a cockroach, despised by everyone,’ said a source. ‘He blatantly sells access and jobs.’
Trump’s core team has been huddled at Mar-a-Lago since his sensational election victory.
They had raced through key appointments setting a modern-day record with 12 Cabinet-level appointments in the 12 days since the election, according to an analysis by David Marchick, dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University.
By the measure of previous Trump campaigns and administrations, the effort was notable for its lack of sniping and dysfunction.
But as attention in Palm Beach turns to economic appointments (such as Treasury secretary) rifts have begun to emerge.
Donald and Melania Trump having dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Elon Musk
Elon Musk praised Argentinian President Javier Milei’s decision to cut tariffs at the weekend, which raised eyebrows among Trump’s allies
Epshteyn (far right) put together the legal team that defended Trump in New York
Elon Musk, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Trump on Saturday
Musk went public at the weekend by criticizing one of the frontrunners for the post, and praised a foreign leader’s decision to cut tariffs at a time when Trump is planning an administration built on higher import duties.
He pushed for Howard Lutnick, Trump’s co-transition chair, to be named treasury secretary, instead of Scott Bessent, who has been talked up by the president-elect in the past.
‘My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change,’ he wrote on X.
‘Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.’
Bessent has been a frequent guest on Steve Bannon’s Warroom, potentially pitting Musk against one of Trump’s most influential informal advisers and his millions of loyal viewers.
The former president’s allies were delighted when Musk used his personal fortune to bankroll the ground game in battleground states.
And he has been named, alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a drive for efficiency across the administration.
Yet there are signs that he could have outstayed his welcome.
‘He has to be careful,’ said a source close to the campaign. ‘There is only room for one president and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that he is generating a lot of headlines.’
Others said the briefings against Musk were not based on fact, and pointed out that the Trump took the Tesla founder to Madison Square Garden with him for a UFC fight on Saturday.
One said that the world’s richest man had no financial interest in pushing certain names for jobs, unlike others in Trump’s orbit.
