Has Trump swapped out family members for his billionaire wingman?

While Donald Trump surrounded himself with a new family line-up on the campaign trail, it now seems as though DOGE boss Elon Musk – and his son – constitute Trump's principle inner circle.

Less has been seen of Trump’s oldest son Donald Jr., Eric and his wife Lara, and Tiffany Trump, Trump’s only child with his second wife Marla Maples, all of whom made the line-up at the Milwaukee Republican Convention last July.

Donald Trump relied heavily on his family during his first term in office and there seemed every reason to believe that the same would apply second time round. As his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, told The Washington Post in an interview earlier this year, “Sometimes the only people you can trust are family.”

The Financial Times reports Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s acting White House chief of staff between 2019 and 2020, saying, “His kids will always be his senior advisers. Anybody who is surprised by Donald Trump putting his family members in key positions does not know Donald Trump."

However, it seems that most of Trump's trust is being put in the unelected Musk who is making savage cuts to government programs and funding as well as workers, and has just had his powers increased by another of Trump's orders.

Melania Trump appeared at the inauguration scarcely visible beneath a low-brimmed hat and has not been spotted since while Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both key aides in Trump’s 2016-2020 White House, are also now little more than extras in the show.

Assuming a task usually reserved for spouses, Lara Trump stepped into Melania’s shoes for the keynote speech at the Republican Convention, but has since secured a spot on Fox News as a presenter.

It is widely recognized that Donald Trump Jr. was behind the decision to cast Vance as Trump’s running mate, indicating the influence he was wielding in the party, according to Axios news site. But aside from a visit to Greenland, he has kept a low profile since the inauguration.

This is despite Donald Jr having have bags of far-right populist appeal, reports The Financial Times, a departure from Ivanka who was accused by some in the Trump camp of being a globalist.

Trump was painted as a family man by his daughter-in-law Lara back in July. “When I look at Donald Trump, I see a wonderful father, father-in-law, and of course grandfather to my two children,” she gushed at the Republican Convention. “This is a man who has sacrificed for his family, and a man who has truly sacrificed for his country.”

But it looks as though Musk's appeal is hard to resist and those family members have been relegated to the inner circle's second tier, at least for now.

As far as Melania is concerned, Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan believes the First Lady takes her cue from a phrase coined by her husband in his book “The Art of the Comeback,” published in the 1990s when they got together: “One thing I have learned: There is high maintenance. There is low maintenance. I want no maintenance.”

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