Elon Musk and the Tech Billionaires Steering Trump’s Transition Team

The week after the November election, President-elect Donald J. Trump gathered his high advisers within the tearoom at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, to plan the transition to his second-term authorities.

Mr. Trump had introduced two of his most valued houseguests to the assembly: the billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk and the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison. The president-elect seemed across the convention desk and issued a joking-not-joking problem.

“I introduced the 2 richest folks on the earth right now,” Mr. Trump instructed his advisers, in line with an individual who was within the room. “What did you convey?”

Mr. Trump has delighted in a crucial addition to his transition workforce: the Silicon Valley billionaires and millionaires who’ve been everywhere in the transition, shaping hiring selections and even conducting interviews for senior-level jobs. Many of those that should not formally concerned, like Mr. Ellison, have been comfortable to take a seat in on the conferences.

Their involvement, to a level far deeper than beforehand reported, has made this probably the most doubtlessly conflict-ridden presidential transitions in fashionable historical past. It additionally carries what might be huge implications for the Trump administration’s insurance policies on points together with taxes and the regulation of synthetic intelligence, to not point out clashing mightily with the notion that Mr. Trump’s model of populism is all about serving to the working man.

The presence of the Silicon Valley crew throughout crucial moments additionally displays one thing bigger. Silicon Valley was as soon as seen as a Democratic stronghold, however the brand new technology of tech leaders — epitomized by Mr. Musk — usually has a right-wing ideology and a way that they’ve a chance now to shift the stability of energy in favor of less-fettered entrepreneurship.