Maggie Haberman Agrees Trump Oval Office Spectacle Was ‘Bringing Musk to Heel’ — Not Humiliation

New York Times White House correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman agreed that President Donald Trump was bringing DOGE czar Elon Musk “to heel” during an Oval Office photo op earlier this week that many framed as humiliating to Trump.

Trump and Musk spoke to reporters for about half an hour after Trump signed executive orders in the Oval Office Tuesday — joined by Elon’s son, X Musk. Musk stood at Trump’s right while Trump sat at the Resolute Desk — the same one Musk was pictured at on a recent Time Magazine cover.

Many of Trump’s critics have cast the imagery of that press conference as “humiliating” and indicative of Trump’s subservience to Musk.

On Friday’s edition of NYT‘s The Daily podcast with host Michael Barbaro, that photo op came up, and Haberman — who has covered Trump for decades and has unique insight into him as a result — made a couple of observations.

First ,she said journalists who know Trump thought he was “not enjoying” the meeting — but that she believed Trump officials who refuted that:

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Trump was relegated to sort of a spectator in his own office just sitting at the desk and nodding and occasionally chiming in and criticizing judges.

And what was really striking about it, Michael, is that it looked to those of us who have watched him for a long time as if Trump was not enjoying this.

I talked to a number of his advisers afterwards. They said he was fine with it. They said that he– and I don’t think that they’re making it up. I think that he was defending his guy, Elon Musk, who has gone above and beyond in many ways to try to prove loyalty to Trump. And Trump really likes having the richest man in the world seeking his approval.

And later in the show, she agreed with Barbaro “100 percent” that Trump was “bringing Musk to heel” rather than demonstrating powerlessness:

MICHAEL BARBARO: I just want to close out this conversation about Elon Musk, because this idea, this motif of a co-presidency is so much in the air. I just want to get some clarity on this.

Maggie, is there a version of this where we should see Trump giving Elon Musk this kind of a platform as him actually exerting some power over Musk? I mean, if you watched the president set it up, he said, I’ve asked Elon Musk to come here to offer a few remarks.

And, you know, even though Trump was sitting there at the Resolute Desk not saying much during the entire time Musk was talking, he was sitting at the Resolute desk. That’s his desk. It was very clear he was the president.

Is there a way of flipping this around a little bit and seeing this as as him kind of bringing Musk to heel?

MAGGIE HABERMAN: 100%. I think the way you just described it is exactly–. It is Musk showing some level of of dutiful obligation to Donald Trump. There’s no question.

Watch above via NYT‘s The Daily podcast.