Elon Musk, who once largely eschewed politics, now has a political clout of his own to throw around as President-elect Trump heads back to the Oval Office. The tech billionaire has become a driving force in American politics in the past year, rising from Silicon Valley mogul and Washington outsider to a conservative thought leader in Trump’s inner circle. Whether he is on Capitol Hill, sitting alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago or broadcasting his views on X, his social media platform, Musk has already offered a preview of how he plans to use his new political sway under a Trump administration. Observers predict the dynamic is likely to continue, if not intensify, once Trump officially takes office and Musk takes the helm of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) panel aimed at slashing government costs. “My instinct is, and we’re already kind of hearing murmurings of this, is that Trump is going to have a hard time wrangling Musk,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative.   The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has increasingly found himself in Trump’s orbit — and in the most prominent circles in Republican politics — since throwing his support behind the president-elect and pouring at least a quarter of a billion dollars into boosting his campaign.  Musk has already shown his ability to drive the political conversation, often on X, where his posts reach millions of users in a matter of hours. His reach played out last month when he and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy fired off dozens of posts on X expressing their intense opposition to a short-term funding plan rolled out by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).   The two stirred up conversation and doubts about the bill among lawmakers for hours before Trump or Vice President-elect JD Vance voiced their opposition to the bill. The pressure campaign forced Johnson back to the drawing table. Owens, a former senior economic policy adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), said these posts created “choppy waters” for Johnson and Trump, as Democrats dubbed Musk the “co-president.” “I absolutely think he's [Musk] going to be weighing in on congressional negotiations, on the appropriations process, on the tax fight, on agency rulemaking,” Owens told The Hill. “I would expect nothing less. ... He's fired off a huge number of opinions about what the government should be doing, what agencies should be doing, what enforcement actions should be taken, and the like.”  Musk seems to have influence, “particularly if he can get Trump's ear and have Trump get involved in the issue on the same side,” noted Owen Tedford, a senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors.  Lawmakers have taken notice of Musk’s ability to grab Trump’s attention.   “Did he move into Mar-a-Lago? I think he moved in,” Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) quipped Tuesday. “He’s got the president's ear. The president trusts him.”   Musk also inflamed divisions within Trump's inner circle last month during a heated debate over H-1B visas, pitting the tech billionaire and his fellow Silicon Valley conservatives against the hard-line anti-immigrant contingent of Trump’s supporters. The Silicon Valley group argued in favor of the visa for highly skilled immigrants — a popular program with tech firms seeking to hire foreign-born engineers — and clashed with the likes of far-right activist Laura Loomer and former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon.  Trump ultimately sided with Musk, saying he is a “believer” in the H-1B visa program.  “As long as he continues to have this close access to Trump — if he can get in Trump's ear and have Trump tweet something out, I think that is really where his voice becomes much stronger on X, the more he can kind of get in Trump's head so to speak,” Tedford added.  Multiple GOP lawmakers are welcoming Musk’s comments from the outside and several told The Hill they look forward to working with the tech billionaire on congressional matters.   “I think we do better when we have outsiders with a fresh set of eyes and a different background look at public problems,” Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) told The Hill on Tuesday. “He’s welcome to weigh in. He doesn’t govern, we govern — the elected officials — but he’s certainly welcome to express his opinion.” Musk has been able to do most of the political maneuvering straight from his X account, where he boasts more than 212 million followers. The approach is reminiscent of the first Trump administration, when the president often used X, then known as Twitter, to rally his supporters, unveil new policies and go after critics. While Trump primarily posts on Truth Social, the platform he launched before his reelection bid, his relationship with Musk has raised concerns about how X could be used to support his agenda the second time around. “[Musk] has been willing to act on behalf of the government of India in repressing their critics and his close relationship with President Trump, [which] at least raises the question, the possibility that he could use his platform in ways that are invisible to the rest of us to suddenly promote the interests of his political ally and to promote his political views,” said Tom Ginsburg, a founding faculty director of the University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression. Ginsburg was referring to accusations Musk complied with the Indian government’s pressure to remove critical content of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.   During the H-1B visa debate last month, Musk was accused of targeting the accounts of users who disagreed with him, eliminating their verification and removing access to monetization. Loomer alleged the tech billionaire was “silencing” her in retaliation for “supporting original Trump immigration policies.”  Musk noted at the time that X diminishes the reach of accounts that are frequently muted or blocked by verified users, further fueling accusations of censorship.  His dual role as a social media platform owner and a close adviser to the president-elect could bring additional scrutiny. “He has turned out not to be a free speech absolutist at all, but someone who is interested in promoting his own speech and protecting his corporate interests,” Ginsburg said. “There’s nothing wrong with that legally, but for him to claim the mantle of free speech is really something of a joke.” While Musk’s background is in technology and science, some lawmakers and experts predict this might not come up as much on Capitol Hill as some in the tech world initially thought.   Asked if he sees Musk influencing tech policy in the 119th Congress, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) told The Hill that Musk’s focus is “DOGE efficiency.” Guthrie, whose committee has jurisdiction over many aspects of technology policy, said he has yet to personally meet Musk.   As it stands, DOGE is not an official government agency, meaning Musk does not have an official governmental role that requires him to follow certain ethics rules, such as divesting from his business interests.  This has allowed him to avert policies meant to limit conflicts of interest and still weigh in on a wide range of matters. “If DOGE is required to become a federal advisory, it’s hard to see him being interested in running the real process. I think he’s much more interested in a scrappy, sort of disorganized, chaotic version,” Owens said.   Still, Musk's advisory role means he lacks the authority to enact changes on his own. Tedford suggested the key to his success will be who else in the Trump administration with “real" regulatory authority shares his world view. He pointed to the president-elect's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, and his nominee for deputy Defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, as potential Musk allies in the administration.  “His position as an adviser and through DOGE is great because he can come up with all these ideas and ways to change the government and reform different aspects of the government,” Tedford said. “But he can't actually lead that change himself. He needs other regulators and agency heads to direct that.”