Trump to join Musk at SpaceX launch in Texas

Donald Trump plans to accompany billionaire Elon Musk to a SpaceX launch in Texas on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the president-elect's plans.

Musk, who emerged as a top donor and Trump surrogate during the 2024 election, has been an influential person in Trump's orbit since the election.

The world's richest person has sat in on Trump's calls with world leaders, and has chimed in on his Cabinet picks.

Recently, he publicly advocated for Howard Lutnick to be Treasury secretary and used his social media platform to back Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) for Senate majority leader (Scott flamed out).

Musk flew with Trump to Washington last week and also joined him over the weekend for the Ultimate Fighting Championship match at Madison Square Garden.

SpaceX is scheduled on Tuesday to launch its sixth, suborbital flight test of its Starship rocket, which Musk hopes will eventually transport humans to the moon and Mars. Trump has marveled at SpaceX and Starlink and would frequently bring it up during final weeks of the campaign.

After winning the election, Trump spoke at length about Musk deploying Starlink services to get internet to parts of the country impacted by Hurricane Helene."He's a character. He's a special guy. He's a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses," Trump said. "We don't have that many of them. We have to."