Trump and Musk say they like working together and will keep it at. Will it last?

WASHINGTON — It’s been a burning political question for weeks: How long will President Donald Trump — who doesn’t like sharing the spotlight — be able to do just that with Elon Musk, a billionaire also overly fond of attention? In a joint Fox News Channel interview that aired Tuesday, both insisted they like each other a lot and would stick with their arrangement despite what Trump said were attempts by the media to “drive us apart.” At times, Trump sat back as Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity heaped praise on Musk in an attempt to counteract a Democratic narrative that he’s a callous and unelected force out to destroy the government and upend civil society through sweeping cuts being imposed by the Department of Government Efficiency. They feuded as recently as July 2022 — with Trump calling Musk a “bulls—- artist.” He also suggested then that Musk came to the White House during his first term seeking federal subsidies for “electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere.” “I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” Trump previously said on his social media site. Musk nonetheless insisted to Hannity, “I haven’t asked the president for anything, ever.” Trump said the billionaire “won’t be involved” in areas where his government efforts and business concerns overlap — though that seems dubious given that Musk’s team has already begun scrutinizing federal contracts in areas that would seem to present conflict-of-interest concerns. His former attorney general, Bill Barr, refuted Trump’s falsehoods about widespread fraud in the 2020 election and has since said he “shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer who testified against him in a hush money case, told a House committee in 2019: “People that follow Mr. Trump, as I did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.” More recently, Trump shrugged off potential security risks while ending Secret Service protection for former top officials in his first administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House chief of staff John Kelly.