What's New
A high-profile private dinner held by Donald Trump for Jeff Bezos took an unexpected turn when Elon Musk made an uninvited appearance, sparking a flood of jokes and memes online.
Musk reportedly crashed the meeting at Mar-a-Lago between the President-elect and Amazon CEO on Wednesday. According to The New York Times, the X CEO "was not initially expected to be part of the dinner but joined as it was underway."
Newsweek has contacted Musk and Trump's transition team for comment via email for confirmation.
Musk's appearance at the dinner sparked a barrage of jokes and memes online, with late night hosts and social media users mocking him as "deranged" and "creepy." Seth Meyers said of Trump: "You got 'Cable Guy'ed by Elon Musk."
Meyers' joke is a reference to 1996 movie The Cable Guy which, according to IMDb, is a dark comedy about "a lonely and socially awkward cable TV installer, played by Jim Carrey, who becomes obsessed with customer Chip Douglas (Matthew Broderick), and inserts himself into Chip's life."
Why It Matters
The world is watching to see how Trump's relationship with his richest supporters develops. Musk's power within MAGA circles has been rising in recent months. He led the charge against the temporary spending bill passed by Congress on Friday, which resulted in some Democrats calling him President Musk. He spent about $250 million on Donald Trump's 2024 campaign and is set to join the next administration as cohead of the newly formed advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But Bezos has also been a key supporter of Trump, saying last week Amazon was giving $1 million to the committee planning Trump's inauguration.
What To Know
The two world's richest men, Musk worth at least $450 billion and Bezos about $240 billion, have a history of public clashes. In a November post on X, Musk accused Bezos of advising others to sell shares in his companies, claiming it was due to the belief that Donald Trump would lose the presidential election. Bezos quickly responded, calling the accusation "100% not true." Musk then replied, "Well, then, I stand corrected," followed by a laughing emoji.
Musk has also called Bezos a copycat, mocked him for being second on the wealth list, criticized his lawsuits against SpaceX, and even declared: "Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!" On the other hand, Bezos has questioned Musk's ambitions of colonizing Mars and suggested that Musk's takeover of Twitter (now X) could create challenges for Tesla in China.
The two also compete directly in key industries including artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and autonomous driving. Additionally, their space companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, vie for lucrative government contracts, further fueling their business rivalry.
What People Are Saying
Late night host Seth Meyers said: "Oh my God, you let him do you a favor, and now you can't get rid of him—you got 'Cable Guy'ed by Elon Musk. Every time you look out that little keyhole, he gonna be there."
Journalist and author Seth Abramson wrote on Bluesky: "Elon Musk is so deranged and creepy—and such a clueless stalker—that he actually crashed a private dinner between Donald Trump and Musk rival Jeff Bezos. I can't imagine how livid that made both Trump and Bezos."
He continued: "What it also confirms is that Musk not only has no boundaries and believes himself Trump's superior but has no intention of permitting any other plutocrat to squeeze more juice out of Trump than him. Showing up at that dinner uninvited is a power play intended to cow both other oligarchs and Trump."
Late-night host Jimmy Fallon said: "To settle who he loves more, Elon and Bezos are going to put Trump down in the middle of the room and see who he goes to first: 'All right, here boy!'"
CBS host Stephen Colbert said: "Well, if he's going to be the guy running everything, I'm going to have to work on my Elon Musk impression."
Trump woke up the morning after the crashed dinner and took to his Truth Social account exclaiming: "EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!"
What Happens Next
The exact scope of Musk's influence on Trump's administration is still unclear, but he is poised to lead the newly created advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which could be central to Trump's policy agenda.
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