Elon Musk with his son and First Lady Melania Trump at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024
New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's new book was released Tuesday to the public, and among the revelations about the First Lady is that she didn't want trillionaire Elon Musk anywhere near the White House residence.
The Daily Beast dug through the book, uncovering a story that the tech guru, who promised and failed to reduce government spending by $2 trillion, once needled the president about crashing in the White House. Melania Trump put her foot down, but her husband didn't care. Musk then spent several nights in the Lincoln bedroom, the Daily Beast relayed.
Despite his vast wealth, Musk is known for couch surfing or living out of his offices or factories, as the New York Post reported in 2022.
“Though he also told associates he had taken to using a sleeping bag on the floor of his office in the Eisenhower Building," the book says.
The trillionaire bragged about it to the press, saying, “Sometimes I stay at the White House." He then noted he'd done it “more than once.”
According to Trump's version of events, the two were on Air Force One when Trump asked Musk where he was staying. During Trump's first term, he liked to ask the question to test whether people were staying at his Washington hotel. Musk said he didn't know yet. Trump then invited him to the White House for a private tour.
The Tesla boss said he thought the Lincoln Bedroom was "cool" and swore he never requested it.
Musk aslso praised Trump as a great host.
The First Lady didn't like Musk around and neither did many of the White House staffers, the book said. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles didn't like him much either, feeling he had a "strangeness" to him. He came across as "unhinged."
After Musk left the White House, it was revealed that he may have been using an extensive amount of drugs at the time, some of which are illegal. The New York Times reported in May 2025 that "Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it."
The Times was careful to explain that it was unclear whether Musk was doing all of those drugs while at work in the White House. Musk denies the reporting, saying that he does not use drugs.
Haberman and Swan's new book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, is on sale Tuesday.
Reprinted with permission from AlterNet
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