Elon Musk is accused of living in Mar-a-Lago after the election: the rent may reach $2,000 per night

After the US election, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, has been spending much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Donald Trump's private Florida club. Musk is reportedly paying up to $2,000 per night to stay in a house on the property, but by being so close to Trump, he is only ever one text message away from the new president.

In addition to already being Trump's biggest donor, most influential social-media propagandist, and de facto senior adviser on policy and executive-branch staffing, Musk is now also Trump's tenant.

According to documents filed with the United States Federal Election Commission, Musk donated $259 million to an entity supporting Trump's 2024 campaign, one of the largest contributions in history to the campaign of a sitting US president.

With all of the support he gave Trump during the election, Musk is in a good position to lead the soon-to-be former president's proposed new cabinet department, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk has allegedly spent much of his time since the election at Mar-a-Lago and taken up residence in a home on that is available to rent to members. Musk, who famously likes to stay in friends' homes when traveling and does not have a permanent residence himself, is reportedly renting a four-bedroom home at the resort known as the Banyan, which is a couple hundred yards from the Trump compound.

Mar-a-Lago, however, is not someone's home. It is a members-only, for-profit club owned by Trump. And Trump is known to be a shrewd businessman.

Built in the 1920s as the winter estate of a Florida-born heiress and philanthropist named Marjorie Merriweather Post, Trump turned Mar-a-Lago into a members-only club and luxury hotel in the late 1990s. The club currently has about 2,000 "members" from around the world, including many wealthy Russians. Musk has previously shown a special affinity for Russia by traveling there in March to complete the purchase of Twitter. (He now owns both companies.)

But by residing on the property, Musk has an easy and regular route to seeing Trump. He can show up unannounced for Trump's dinner parties or whenever Trump is at the compound, even if just to wave and offer him some kind of outlandish advice for a problem Trump is having. And he apparently showed up just in time for Trump's dinner with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday night, much to the delight of Twitter "shock jocks" who mocked the moment.

The rent for the Banyan is rumored to be a minimum of $2,000 per night; however, it is unknown whether Trump is charging Musk anything or giving him the home for free. The club staff reportedly doesn't bill for charges like room rents until guests check out. So it's still possible Musk doesn't have to foot the bill for his stay — until he does, anyway. It isn't clear when Musk has planned on leaving, either.

The 445-acre estate includes four other homes that are available to rent as second homes, or third homes, or third homes (for when you need to be close to Trump).

It seems that Musk isn't the first of Trump's inner circle to be found "living" at Mar-a-Lago recently, either. After Trump won the election, Vice President-elect Vance, too, reportedly began staying in a house on the property — though Musk's residence appears to be different.

While it's not clear which of Trump's acolytes, if any, was at Mar-a-Lago first, it appears that Musk is now staying at the estate permanently, as he's reportedly there nearly every day. "Elon's here daily; Vance is here often; there's been others on this property since election day, there was a former senator, a former cabinet member here briefly, others that I'm sure don't want to see their names in the newspaper," Trump attorney Robert Costello recently told CBS News about the property.

Musk is far from the first notable figure to be spotted at the exclusive club recently. Trump ally and former House Speaker John Boehner has stayed in the Banyan over the past few years when visiting or attending golf events at Mar-a-Lago.

Still, some of Trump's other advisers have privately grumbled about how Musk has taken over the transition team, both by offering unsolicited advice to Trump and by making themselves scarce. It isn't the first time that someone in the Trump orbit has expressed concern at what Musk has been up to. Musk's advisers have reportedly already made enemies with many Republican donors and staffers involved with the transition team.

Of course, there is a chance that Musk may not be as close to Trump as he thinks he is. As soon as Trump officially becomes president and returns to the White House on January 20, he might not want to be bothered by tweets from Musk nearly as much as he seems to now, even if Musk is paying a pretty penny in rent. And, no, that isn't a reference to Twitter, but you can expect a snarky comment about it from "X" regardless.