Donald Trump jokes he 'can't get rid' of Elon Musk

President-elect Donald Trump returned to Washington on Wednesday with major backer Elon Musk where he joked he cannot get rid of his billionaire supporter.

Trump joined the House Republican conference meeting where he gave remarks while visiting DC. Seated front and center at the gathering on Capitol Hill was the world's richest man. 

It was the latest appearance by Musk who has been hanging about Mar-a-Lago since helping propel Trump back to the White House with the 2024 election.

According to one person in the room Trump, 78, joked to the House Republicans 'Elon won't go home.'

'I can't get rid of him. Until I don't like him,' the President-elect reportedly said.

Musk was also given a standing ovation by GOP lawmakers at the meeting after getting a shoutout by Trump while he was giving remarks.

'Elon has been so great,' Trump said pointing to Musk seated in the center row directly in front of the stage.

That's when the billionaire turned around and waved at the crowd of Republican leaders. 

Multiple members of the GOP conference stood and applauded. A few lawmakers could also be heard cheering. 

Musk has been a near permanent fixture at the center of the Trump transition since the ex-president won the 2024 election with considerable campaign help from the businessman.  

He has been spotted at Trump's Florida home regularly since the election after celebrating the win with campaign officials on election night. 

The billionaire has been seen on Trump's golf course and dining with the president-elect.

Trump's granddaughter even referred to the bombastic billionaire as 'uncle' in a social media post.

On Wednesday morning, he was among the Trump staffers spotted walking of the president-elect's plane for his visit to DC to meet with President Biden and Republican lawmakers. 

It comes after Trump announced on Tuesday Musk will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency along with 2024 GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. 

Trump said in his statement it would pave the way for his administration to dismantle 'Government Bureaucracy' and that would be 'potentially, "The Manhattan Project" of our time.' 

'We finally have a mandate to delete the mountain of choking regulations that do not serve the greater good,' Musk wrote Wednesday on X, which he also owns.

But the move has also been met with criticism as Musk's companies have tangled with the very agencies he will now be dealing with directly. 

The nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen called his appointment 'the Ultimate Corruption.'

'Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack in his new ‘czar’ position,' said the group's co-president Lisa Gilbert.

'This is the ultimate corporate corruption. If anyone had any doubts whether the Trump government aims to serve regular people or the billionaires, they should now be resolved,' she continued.

During Trump's public remarks before the meeting, he spent several minutes touting the numbers that gave him his victory last Tuesday including a sweep of all seven battleground states.