Analysis: Trump's turn to bask in Musk's reflected glory

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : And in any case, Trump has got a new rocket man.
59% : When Trump is inaugurated for a second time as president of the United States, there will be no mistaking who is the senior partner -- even if Musk wields vast non-state power through his wealth and business ventures that penetrate deep into the economies of nations all over the world.
58% : The image reflects the developing reality that Trump, who's always been an icon in the UFC and reality TV worlds, is indisputably becoming a cultural figure as well as a political one.
57% : And Trump can grant Musk extraordinary favors.
57% : In many ways, Musk is a far more successful version of Trump himself.
54% : It's not often that Trump, who seeks to dominate every room and relationship, seems impressed about something other than himself.
51% : One of the most remarkable moments came on Von's show when Trump became unusually animated in asking his host about his past cocaine use.
50% : If he can disrupt the aerospace sector, at the same time as reinventing the electric vehicle business, what might Musk do with his new Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump has tapped him and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead?
50% : (Musk controls the Starlink internet service that is vital to Ukraine's military in the war with Russia that Trump has pledged to end).
45% : and I say, 'it's going to crash into the gantry,'" Trump said earlier this month.
45% : The hostility soon wore off and Trump has often talked about how they "fell in love" -- although their photo-op summits did little to reverse Pyongyang's ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
40% : A bit of a disappointmentIn the event, Trump didn't get to see the ballistic ballet of SpaceX returning its massive booster to be clutched by a state-of-the-art launchpad that he raved about on the campaign trail.
37% : It explains why Trump wants Musk alongside him.
37% : Trump has rarely seemed as at ease or authentic as he does in these venues, talking with authority about wrestling, football and conspiracy theories.
37% : It's too early to say whether the Kim and Trump bromance will resume in the next president's second term.
35% : In the nervous moments before the launch, various lesser satellites revolved around Trump, including his son Donald Jr., Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician.
34% : With Musk, Trump might get more than he bargained for.
34% : "Trump campaigned on the notion that we are going to break the mold," he said.
33% : Trump is sanding down the roughest edges of an extreme image that was cemented by the darkest closing argument of any presidential candidate in modern history.
32% : Trump, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed against the glare and sporting a red MAGA hat bearing a "45" and a "47," struck a Mount Rushmore pose, certainly aware of television split screens that would pair him alongside the rocket's takeoff burn.
30% : Musk is also becoming a force multiplier for Trump -- another reason to keep him around.
30% : Trump spent the early months of his first term taunting North Korean leader Kim as "little rocket man" for his proclivity to shoot off missiles every time he believed his pariah state wasn't getting attention.
29% : But Musk's ubiquity in Trump 2.0 as the standout ally in an emerging inner circle of billionaires, millionaires and Fox News anchors means they have officially become a joke.
24% : Why Trump likes MuskIt's not rocket science why Trump likes Musk.
18% : Trump believes he has a mandate to blow up the federal bureaucracy like one of the prototype rockets his new friend used to supercharge progress in his space program.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.