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Allies of Vice President JD Vance claim he doesn’t see Elon Musk as a threat, despite the billionaire’s constant presence in the White House alongside President Donald Trump.
Since taking office, Trump has given one joint press conference in the Oval Office with the billionaire, along with a joint interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Musk and Vance have not yet appeared together for a press conference or sit-down.
Still, associates of Vance’s insist that he has “no issue with the attention Musk receives” and the vice president is “personally close to him,” according to the Washington Post.
Musk and Vance have “their own friendship” where they exchange texts and phone calls several times a week, the Post reports, citing people with knowledge of their relationship. The vice president hosted the world’s richest man for dinner at the Naval Observatory residence in February, according to the outlet, and often posts his support for Musk on X.
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The DOGE mogul, who has been appointed a special government employee, has played a prominent role at Trump’s first Cabinet meetings and rubbed some department heads up the wrong way at the second. That is only good news for Vance, his allies told the Post, because it shields him from “potential accusations that he might be vying for too much attention.”
Vance and Musk reportedly remain “close” since they were introduced to each other 18 months ago by tech entrepreneur David Sacks. The Tesla boss was reportedly one of Vance’s biggest cheerleaders to be billed on the Republican ticket. Musk told Trump on multiple occasions that Vance “was the smartest and best on TV among the contenders,” according to the outlet.
The men frequently back one another on social media.
After Musk received backlash to widespread federal job cuts by DOGE and critics noted Musk was not elected by the American people to be in office, Vance posted in support: “‘No one voted for Elon Musk.’ (They did however vote for Donald Trump who promised repeatedly to have Elon Musk root out wasteful spending in our government.)”
Vance also shared Musk’s op-ed published in Germany’s Die Welt where he declared his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Vance said it was an “interesting” article.
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In return, Musk often praises the vice president publicly and once called him the “Best VP ever and our future President” in a post on X.
The vice president is “comfortable operating both in the foreground and behind the scenes of Trump’s orbit,” the associates told the Post. But the latter was not a tactic he employed during the explosive meeting in the Oval Office with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vance’s first cousin, Nate Vance, has told The Independent that the vice president and Trump only attacked Zelensky because they can’t bully Putin.
The former U.S. Marine, who volunteered to help defend Ukraine, said the meeting was an ambush.
“I was angry, let’s be honest I was angry,” he said. “Even if you removed my connection to the vice president and you removed my connection to Ukraine, and this was just some neutral issue where a president invited a foreign leader to the White House… it was a really weird thing to me.”
