Elon Musk Joins Jeff Bezos & Donald Trump For Dinner At Mar-A-Lago
It’s been a year since CNBC published a report highlighting how psychology experts have pinpointed the strategies skilled liars use to appear believable. One key tactic? Adding extra details to make their story seem more convincing.
Lately, every time Donald Trump goes on about his supposed electoral “mandate,” I can’t help but think back to that report.
President-elect Donald Trump hosted a dinner on Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. Joining them was billionaire Elon Musk, as confirmed by a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team.
The gathering is part of an ongoing parade of tech leaders making their way to Trump’s South Florida residence, seeking to engage with the incoming administration.
This includes some prominent figures from Silicon Valley who had distanced themselves from Trump during his previous term. Musk, however, has been a familiar face in Trump’s orbit, offering advice on federal spending and technology policies.
Tensions from Trump’s first term appear to be giving way to a surprising shift in tone, as both Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos acknowledge a warming relationship. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump remarked on the change in attitude among tech leaders.
“During my first term, everyone was fighting me,” Trump said. “Now, they all want to be my friend.”
This evolving dynamic has extended beyond Bezos. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai recently paid visits to Trump at his West Palm Beach residence.
A spokesperson for Bezos declined to comment on the meeting when contacted by The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk weighed in on X Wednesday night, describing his conversation with Trump and Bezos as “great.”
Despite the recent civility, Musk and Bezos—whose Blue Origin competes with Musk’s SpaceX—have had their share of clashes. Just last month, Musk accused Bezos of spreading predictions of Trump’s defeat and urging investors to sell Tesla and SpaceX stocks. Bezos has denied the allegations.
During his first term as president, Trump complained bitterly about Bezos to his advisers and sought to punish Bezos’s companies out of anger about Post journalism, The Post has reported. Trump accused Amazon of swindling the U.S. Postal Service, tried to get the government to cancel subscriptions to The Post and accused Amazon of not paying enough taxes.
Now, as Trump is preparing to return to the White House, Bezos has offered him more public support. He posted a congratulatory message about Trump’s electoral win, writing that it was “an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.”
And he offered a thankful post after Trump survived an assassination attempt. Bezos also committed to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund through Amazon.
The Post’s owner faced a political controversy when he decided to end The Post’s practice of endorsing a candidate for president, spiking The Post editorial board’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Bezos later wrote that he made the decision to improve readers’ trust in the newspaper and “that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here.”