Melania Trump Wanted to Ban Elon Musk from Sleeping at the White House

Who did Melania Trump reportedly draw the line at having sleep over at the White House? A foreign leader? A controversial political ally? One of Trump’s many friends from Mar-a-Lago? Good guesses but no, apparently it was now trillionaire and former Trump BFF Elon Musk. 

According to the new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, at one point Musk became so close to Donald Trump that he was invited to spend the night at the White House. The invitation reportedly came during a conversation aboard Air Force One when Trump asked Musk where he was staying that evening.

Musk didn’t have a plan, so Trump suggested he stay at the White House. And not just in any old room.

According to the book, Trump invited Musk to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom, one of the most famous rooms in the White House and a space traditionally reserved for royalty, foreign dignitaries, and some of the country’s most important guests.

The infamous guest suite literally features a desk with the original handwritten, signed copy of the Gettysburg Address so just imagine Musk rolling around in that room. 

And interestingly, even though First Lady Melania Trump famously does not spend her time in D.C., the book claims she wasn’t thrilled by the arrangement and tried to put her foot down on these sleepovers. 

According to the reporting, there was a lot of back-and-forth between the president and first lady over Musk staying, but ultimately, Musk did spend several nights in the Lincoln Bedroom and later bragged to reporters about his White House stays.

Reportedly other nights, Musk slept at friends houses or in a sleeping bag on the floor of his office in the Eisenhower building. Isn’t he the richest man on earth? Why doesn’t he just, you know, get a hotel?

Clearly he did love staying at the White House and even described Trump as an unusually generous host. Musk said Trump would call him late at night and remind him to get ice cream from the White House kitchen.

“I ate a whole tub of ice cream,” Musk recalled. “Caramel, Häagen-Dazs. I mean, don’t tell RFK.”

It’s an image that feels almost impossible to picture: the richest man in the world, crashing at the White House, eating caramel Häagen-Dazs in the middle of the night, and becoming enough of a fixture around the president that the first lady reportedly wanted him out of the guest room.