Elon Musk is ‘renting’ $2,000 a night Mar-a-Lago cottage so he can spend hours every day with Donald Trump

‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk has settled into Donald Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago club as the president-elect sets the agenda for his second term.

The Tesla billionaire — who has been a steadfast supporter of Trump since July — has even taken part in high-stakes rallies while reportedly “renting” a $2,000-a-night cottage just outside the main residence.

The world’s richest man – and co-chair of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – has been busy sparring with both liberals and conservatives on social media in recent days.

But Musk has become something of a tenant at Trump’s famous Florida club and is expected to return soon.

The Tesla CEO stayed in a cottage called “Banyan” that rents $2,000 per night and was once occupied by ex-House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, not far from the main building.

This allows Musk to visit Trump as often as he wants and participate in his meetings with several important people, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

He and his mother Maye even spent Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago with the Trump family and stars like Sylvester Stallone, leading Trump to joke that Musk won’t be leaving.

Musk has often been spotted at staff meetings and even on phone calls with dignitaries.

The head of Tesla and social media giant X has also invited his employees to join the transition team, the New York Times reports. His employees participated in Trump’s vetting process for hiring senior administration members.

Newly elected Vice President JD Vance has also been regularly staying at Mar-a-Lago since the election.

Musk’s first stay at Mar-a-Lago started around Election Day before he briefly left for the Christmas holidays.

However, it is expected that he will return soon to assist in the final weeks before the inauguration.

Musk often has at least two of his children with him. Shivon Zilis, a former Neuralink employee who was the mother of one of his 11 children, was also present at the property along with their nanny.

While the $2,000 per night rate is a previous estimate, it’s unclear whether Musk has had to pay yet, as Trump often doesn’t charge people for staying there until they leave.

Trump doesn’t seem to mind the company as he sent a cryptic message to his billionaire tech friend on Friday, hours after a brutal social media debate over immigration blew up in his face.

‘Where are you?’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe’, Mar-a-Lago.”

Trump also claimed that Musk’s billionaire rival Bill Gates asked him to visit him on Friday evening.

‘We miss you and x!’ Trump wrote, presumably referring to Musk’s son X Æ A-Xii, known as D.J.T.’

The public post, which was apparently aimed at Musk, led to speculation that it was intended as a direct private message to the billionaire.

Trump and Musk have not commented on the arrangement.

He was last seen with Trump at the Army-Navy football game in Maryland on December 14.

Trump joked about the controversy during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest.

Musk has since blown up a proposed Republican spending deal by criticizing it on X, causing an uproar in the House of Representatives and nearly bringing down the government.

Democrats responded by publicly claiming that Musk was the “real” president who controlled Trump and Republicans in Congress.

“No, he’s not going to be president, I can tell you that,” Trump said of Musk. ‘And I’m safe. Do you know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.’

Musk was born in South Africa.

Trump’s latest social media message to Musk came after the billionaire had a heated conversation about importing skilled foreign technology workers on H1-B visas, claiming it was essential for growing tech companies.

“The number of people who are super-talented engineers AND super-motivated in the US is far too low,” Musk wrote, warning of the “critical shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Musk shared several posts on X defending the need for skilled foreign workers.

‘There is a permanent shortage of excellent technical talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” he wrote.

Musk asked his followers to think of American companies trying to recruit the best talent for their organizations as if they were a sports team.

“If you force the best talent in the world to play for the other side, America will LOSE. End of story,” he wrote.

But Musk’s critics argued that H1-B visas were being abused by American companies to bring in foreign workers instead of hiring qualified American workers.

Both Trump and his running mate JD Vance have campaigned on the idea of ​​reforming the H1-b visa program to prioritize American workers.

‘I know the H1-b very well, it is something that I use and that should not be allowed, we should not have it. Very, very bad for workers… it’s very bad for our workers and very unfair to our workers and we have to put an end to it,” Trump said in 2016.

Trump has made several jokes since the election about how he can’t get rid of Musk, who became a key ally, fundraiser and organizer for the president’s successful campaign victory over Kamala Harris.

Bee during the House of Representatives Republican conference on Capitol Hill, Trump reportedly joked, “Elon won’t be going home.”

‘I can’t get rid of him. Until I don’t like him anymore.’

Sitting front and center of the meeting was the richest man in the world, Musk.

Musk has been a near-permanent force at the center of the Trump transition since the ex-president won the 2024 election with significant campaign help from the businessman.

Trump’s granddaughter Kai has even called Musk “Uncle Elon.”

It comes after Trump announced that Musk will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency along with Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential candidate.

Trump said in his statement that it would pave the way for his administration to dismantle the “government bureaucracy” and that would be “potentially the Manhattan Project of our time.”

“We finally have a mandate to eliminate the mountain of stifling regulations that do not serve the greater good,” Musk wrote on Wednesday on X, which he also owns.

But this move also met with criticism, because Musk’s companies have come into contact with the authorities with which he now has to deal directly.