Elon Musk’s starring role in the new Donald Trump administration was confirmed as he appeared front and centre of his inauguration proceedings – and witnessed him pledge a mission to Mars.
Musk sat behind members of the Trump family for Monday’s ceremony, grinning and pumping his fists as the president declared he would “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars”.
The SpaceX chief executive appeared elated as Mr Trump promised to “launch American astronauts who plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars” – a longtime personal ambition of the billionaire’s.
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Giving his own speech at a rally shortly after the taking of the oath, he heaped praise on the president.
He hailed a coming of a new “golden age” for the United States, telling supporters at Washington DC’s Capital One Arena: “It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured.”
Seemingly unable to contain his excitement, he said: “Man I can’t wait. This is going to be fantastic.”
Musk, who is the wealthiest person on the planet, also posted on his social media platform X to praise Mr Trump, writing simply: “The Return of the King.”
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The Tesla owner contributed around $200m (£162m) to the campaign to get Mr Trump elected for a second time.
Mr Musk has since been made head of his newly created Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The advisory group is not strictly part of the government – but is set to recommend major cuts to budgets and bureaucracy.
Following his appointment, Mr Musk set it a target of $2tn (£1.62tn) – roughly the same size as the US deficit.
Efficiencies of that scale would require cuts to social security and Medicare programmes – and the likely redundancies of hundreds of thousands of government employees.
Mr Musk was joined by other tech giants on inauguration day, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
He shook hands with Mr Trump’s son Barron – and appeared directly behind him in many of the main televised shots of the president.
Ramaswamy no longer involved in DOGE
Mr Musk, who has been a regular visitor at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, was due to run the new department with the former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
But earlier on Monday, DOGE put out a statement to say Mr Ramaswamy will no longer be involved in the project – indicating he will instead run to be governor of Ohio.
“Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE,” spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
“He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE, based on the structure that we announced today.
“We thank him immensely for his contributions over the last two months and expect him to play a vital role in making America great again.”