The billionaire activist investor who last year took on Disney in a failed proxy fight said he’s the reason Elon Musk helped Donald Trump clench the presidential election.
Months before the Tesla CEO threw his support behind the now president-elect, Nelson Peltz, the founding partner and CEO of Trian Partners, and his son, Diesel, brought the two together for a late spring breakfast, Peltz said during CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Conference on Wednesday.
“Elon was at the house for a weekend, and we had a breakfast and invited Donald for breakfast, and they sort of reunited again,” Peltz said during the onstage interview. “I was a matchmaker.”
Apparently the pair clicked, as Musk would soon become one of the president’s biggest supporters, both at rallies and through donations.
Musk officially endorsed Trump following an assassination attempt on the Republican during a campaign rally in July. He later contributed about $200 million to Trump’s campaign through his super PAC, the AP reported.
Peltz, for his part, is glad the Trump-Musk partnership came to fruition, adding that the president-elect’s victory depended on Musk.
“I don’t know that Donald would have had this sweeping victory without Elon. Elon was in Pennsylvania, I thought he was going to be Amish, he was there full time,” Peltz said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
On Tuesday, Trump named Musk co-leader of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a consulting-type operation, meant to drastically cut federal spending to save money.
Yet, while Musk has implied he won’t join the incoming administration full-time, he is reportedly spending a lot of time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he has sat in on job interviews, and nearly every meeting with Trump, the New York Timesreported. The Wall Street Journal dubbed it “Musk-a-Lago.” He has even joined phone calls with foreign leaders, including Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the outlet.
“I’m happy to be first buddy!” He wrote in reply to a user’s post on X on Monday.
While Trump seems to be embracing Musk as a member of the team, even taking pictures with the Trump family, outside experts have warned that the relationship may not last forever. And even Trump has joked about their possible fallout.
“Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him—at least until I don’t like him,” Trump told Republican leaders Wednesday.