At Trump’s house, Elon Musk resides in a very special bungalow

After injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the presidential campaign of his new best friend, Donald Trump, Elon Musk is entitled to one of the best suites at his golf club in Florida.

It’s no longer a secret. At Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s glitzy club, nestled on the equally glitzy island of Palm Beach, Florida, Elon Musk is now at home. It’s quite simple, since the presidential election of November 5, he has practically never left the place.

They say that every meeting, every important dinner, every phone call and every business meeting is where you need to be. Not to mention job interviews with potential candidates for leadership positions in the new Trump administration. We sometimes see him accompanied by his mother, Maye Musk, sometimes by two of his eleven children, sometimes by his ex-partner, sometimes by a handful of nannies.

And when Elon Musk leaves, his good friend Donald Trump seems lost. Just last Friday, the 78-year-old president-elect made an appeal as vibrant as it was desperate. In a message supposed to remain private, he also got confused by sharing his publication with the rest of the world on his Truth Social network.

So let’s not worry too much about Donald Trump’s morale, after being absent during the Christmas holidays, his new favorite should be back to pop the champagne and celebrate the New Year. All this, in the middle of a bloody debate on immigration which has been tearing apart the American right for several days, which augurs well for 2025.

A very special bungalow

In the meantime, there’s at least one thing Elon Musk doesn’t have to worry about: how to get home after partying at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve. For several weeks, according to “people familiar with the agreement” in the New York Timesthe boss of Space X has a cottage on the Mar-a-Lago property. The bungalow, called ‘Banyan’, is just a few hundred meters from the main houseaccording to an insider familiar with the property.

Not much is known about “Banyan”. The club’s website says nothing specific about it, and there is no trace of the cottage online. The Mar-a-Lago Club is content to boast of its “extraordinary suites,” “tastefully furnished,” in “harmony with the original character of this sumptuous estate.”

However, a source specifies New York Times that the “Banyan” can be charged up to $2,000 a night and Donald Trump reserves it for his distinguished guests. Former House Speaker John Boehner was one of them, before Trump became a presidential candidate in 2015.

This was also the case for the author Caroline Taylor and her husband, the singer James Taylor, “hard-core” Democrats who had the distinct honor (and horror) of staying there for a few days, 2016, before the presidential election. Without realizing the particularity of this cottage.

Mystery subsequently lifted: “We were later told that the reason for these raised eyebrows was the fact that the Banyan Bungalow was usually Ivanka Trump’s residencethe daughter of Donald Trump,” specifies Caroline Taylor in her article.

If the author does not go into detailed descriptions, she specifies that the accommodation is “superb”, the staff “adorable”, and that, to reach the shore, a “tunnel” connects the croquet ground to the Beach Club and the beyond.

Perhaps the same secret passage used by the deposed mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, then in the middle of a depression, and his third wife Judith, when they were Trump’s personal guests in 2008. A tunnel located under South Road Ocean Boulevard very convenient to escape the surveillance of the media and photographers.

As for its current occupant, Elon Musk, the New York Times states that he is known for request meals outside of normal kitchen hours. It is unknown, however, how much he will end up paying for his extended stay. Since club officials generally don’t charge guests until after their stay, Trump will still have the freedom to donate his Florida vacation to his first best friend – or at least lower the bill amount a little.

It would be the least you could do for a friend who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help him win the presidential election. But it’s also not knowing Trump well. Friend or not, the real estate developer is not known for ever skimping on an income opportunity. Especially from the richest man in the world.