CNN commentator Ana Navarro joked Elon Musk is the nation’s ‘First Lady’ after he appeared to replace Melania Trump in a family photograph.
The Tesla boss posed up alongside the Trump clan at Mar-a-Lago following the president-elect’s landslide election victory earlier this week.
Eagle-eyed viewers soon noticed that instead of Donald Trump’s model wife, Melania, Musk and his son son X Æ A-12 were posing in the portrait.
The detail was seized upon by Navarro, as she expressed concern over the X owner’s potential involvement in Trump’s administration.
‘I think it’s a little weird, right? I mean, Elon Musk seems to be everywhere at all times,’ Navarro said during a CNN panel. ‘He’s like, secretary of everything, and at the same time, he’s like First Lady.
‘The other day I saw this picture of him. It was a picture of Trump with his entire family except Melania but Elon Musk was there.’
Navarro’s comments came as the panel discussed an Axios report which revealed the Musk was present for a phone call between the president-elect and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The report stated that Trump even handed over the phone so Musk and the Ukrainian leader to chat.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings argued that Musk’s involvement was ‘unsurprising’, but Navarro was more alarmed.
‘There’s obviously also conflicts of interest,’ She added. ‘This is somebody who has contracts with the Department of Defense.
‘This is somebody who has Starlink that’s a big part of what’s going on in Ukraine.
‘I find it a little weird. But as Scott said, they won. He gets to do whatever he wants, and if he wants Elon everywhere, all the time, that’s what’s going to happen.’
Musk, who quickly became Trump’s most vocal fan after his attempted assassination, has spent at least $119million mobilizing supporters to help propel him to election victory.
Trump has since vowed to establish an independent government efficiency panel that would audit the entire federal government headed by Musk.
He has not detailed how the body would function. The government already has watchdogs such as the Office of Management and Budget, and investigators general at federal agencies.
During his victory speech, the president-elect also paid a lengthy tribute to Musk, calling him a ‘star’ of the Republican Party and a ‘wonderful’ guy .
Earlier this year, Musk’s SpaceX announced that it will be expanding a secretive satellite program called Starshield to be used by the Pentagon.
The company secured a significant classified contract worth a staggering $1.8 billion with the U.S. government in 2021, emphasizing its increasing role as a vital national security partner, documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal revealed.
The collaboration signals a deepening connection between SpaceX, the leading company in the space industry, and the national security establishment.
The program that is tailored for government clients and led by a former Air Force general received a $70 million military award last August for providing communication services to numerous Pentagon partners.
SpaceX’s involvement with defense clients also includes launching classified and military satellites, but the exact use of Starshield is currently unknown.
The company has recently worked with the Pentagon for its Starlink broadband service, providing internet connectivity during critical situations like the Ukraine Russia war.
Musk’s Starlink terminals have meanwhile allowed Ukrainian commanders and units to communicate on the battlefield when their usual networks have been taken down by Russia, and have proved vital to the war effort.
They have also helped Ukrainian troops control drones, which assist with reconnaissance, attacks on enemy tanks, and directing artillery fire.
While Musk looks poised to assume a position close to the president-elect, his wife is said to be taking more of a back seat.
Insiders believe Melania will now be looking to steer clear of the Washington limelight that seemed to drain her during Trump’s first term.
Instead, it appears likely that she will make occasional White House visits, while splitting the majority of her time between her homes in Florida and New York City, where her only son Barron, 18, is now at university.
According to Trump chronicler Michael Wolff, some senior Republicans have already been floating the idea of a new nomenclature: ‘a part-time First Lady’.
Certainly, a quieter life away from public service would appear to suit Melania’s needs.
After her husband 2016 victory, some reports claimed his wife – a quarter-century younger than him – broke down in tears of upset, not joy.
Up until that fateful day, she’d led a relatively private life. The modeling days of her youth were behind her and she’d focused instead on raising Barron, while dabbling in occasional business ventures like jewelry lines and skincare products that often came to nothing.
There have long been whispers of lingering resentment over Trump’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, which is said to have occurred soon after Barron’s birth.
That alleged tryst was, once again, thrust into the public consciousness last year, when Trump was indicted on fraud charges related to hush-money payments made to Daniels.
Melania absented herself for the entirety of the ensuing trial – which ended in a conviction for Trump. According to the New York Times, she viewed the Daniels scandal as ‘his problem’.