Maggie Haberman put President-elect Donald Trump’s recent reported handing of the phone to billionaire X owner Elon Musk during his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy down to two things.
“I think that Trump likes to impress other people and Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and that’s one way of showing off for Zelenskyy,” Haberman told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“I also think it’s something of a dominance play,” the New York Times reporter added. “Musk has a relationship with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin […] and I don’t think that is completely out of Donald Trump’s head when he is doing this.”
“This call attracted a lot of attention for a variety of reasons,” Haberman said. “Musk’s various connections to the government and interest in government approval and government contracts and so forth is going to be a big discussion in the coming months.”
Haberman earlier recalled how Trump would put his daughter and then-White House adviser Ivanka Trump on the line with global leaders following his 2016 election win over Hillary Clinton.
“In this case, it’s the richest man in the world who has business with government and it’s slightly different but it’s pretty in keeping with Trump’s character,” she said.
Musk’s recent closeness to Trump and his campaign — including his financial backing during the final weeks of the election — would most certainly mean he’ll leave his imprint on a second Trump presidency “even if he never actually formally joins the government,” said Haberman.
Trump and Musk have both reportedly talked with Putin multiple times in the last couple of years. Trump on the campaign trail boasted about being able to settle Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, on the first day of his return to the White House.
