Elon Musk could become a formal adviser to Trump if he wins the White House

The potential makeup of a second Donald Trump administration has been a topic of interest since the former president formally announced his third bid for the White House, but it could reportedly include one very surprising face: Elon Musk.

Musk, owner of Tesla and Twitter/X as well as founder of SpaceX, is reported by The Wall Street Journal to be in talks with the former president about an advisory role in a second Trump White House; a more official role than the one he is already playing as a voice on matters of tech policy in Trump’s ear.

The Journal’s sources cautioned that the talks are by no means in advanced stages and may well not lead to a formal position for Musk — if the ex-president even wins the election at all. But the conversations illustrate the former president’s continued alliances with conservative business leaders whose support some analysts expected Trump to lose after his first term in office ended in spectacular fashion with the riot at the US Capitol.

Trump and Musk are said to be talking by phone several times a month, with the Tesla mogul calling his ally in Mar-a-Lago on the latter’s personal cell. The two have discussed topics including technology, the US Space Force, and voter fraud, a favorite topic of Trump’s as it relates to his conspiracies about the 2020 election.

The two men had previously developed a small rivalry after Musk stepped down from a White House advisory council on technology in mid-2017, a response to the Trump administration ending US participation in the Paris Climate Agreement.

In general, a Cabinet under a second Donald Trump presidency would look markedly different. The ex-president is widely thought to have soured on the idea of facing any pushback from career