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

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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.

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