A Trump-Friendly Crowd Shows Its Love. But Not for Musk.
'All right, Philadelphia, show us your guns! Show us your muscles!'
It was Saturday night in Philly, and the Wells Fargo Center was packed with brawny men for the N.C.A.A. men's Division I wrestling championship. 'Macho Man' by Village People blared as the stadium's announcer turned the camera back on the crowd and told it to flex.
Down beside the ring sat President Trump and his entourage. There were a few loyal Republican congressmen; his chief of staff, Susie Wiles; his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt; and, as is so often the case these days, Elon Musk.
Mr. Musk wore a black SpaceX hoodie and hovered two seats down from Mr. Trump. Throughout the night, college wrestling champions would approach to meet the president and to get a picture with him. That often meant getting one with Mr. Musk, too. This is very much a two-for-the-price-of-one presidency.
The wrestling fans who made their way to Philly were not entirely sure if that was what they bargained for when they voted for Mr. Trump, as many of them indeed did. The crowd was largely made up of cornfed men with cauliflower ears from places like Ohio, Missouri, Iowa and Pennsylvania, and while almost all of them said they were pleased with Mr. Trump's time in office so far, interviews with more than a dozen attendees revealed more complicated feelings that were beginning to surface about Mr. Musk.
'Not a big fan of Elon,' said Blaize Cabell, a 32-year-old wrestling coach from Independence, Iowa, who nonetheless remains a big fan of the president. He said he viewed Mr. Musk's career as a businessman as a series of failures and buyouts and said that the billionaire was 'making a lot of callous cuts,' citing the Department of Agriculture. Earlier this month, the department fired thousands of experts and then scrambled to hire them back.
'I don't even know what to think of him at this point,' David Berkovich, a 24-year-old wrestler and graduate school student from Brooklyn, said of Mr. Musk. 'He's just there all the time.'
'He's going a little rampant — I think everyone can agree with that,' said Bobby Coll, a 24-year-old finance broker who lives in Manhattan's West Village. He was there with his girlfriend, Julia Sirois, who said of Mr. Musk's role in the administration, 'It's someone putting their hand in a cookie jar they don't belong in.'
'She's smarter than me,' Mr. Coll quickly added.
The president's supporters always want to afford him the benefit of the doubt, and they appreciate, in theory, what Mr. Musk is trying to do in Washington. They are also grateful to him for helping to get their guy elected — but it seemed to come as a surprise to some of them that Mr. Musk would be this involved more than two months in. Some worried that it was all starting to be a bad look for Mr. Trump, of whom they feel protective. The president hawking Teslas on the White House lawn was not exactly how they imagined this power pact playing out.
'That's a tough one for me,' Jarrod Scandle, a 44-year-old retired police officer from Shamokin, Pa., said of the president's Tesla stunt. 'I think it's a little, I'm trying to think of the word —' he said as his voice trailed off. He concluded that he was really more of a Chevy or Ford kind of a guy.
Katy Travis, a 48-year-old wrestling mom from Columbia, Mo., said she thought Mr. Musk's constant presence 'looks ridiculous.' That he is as empowered as he is just makes the president 'look weak,' she said, which is about the worst thing that can be said of someone at a Division I wrestling championship.
'It makes him look like he's kissing ass to get money,' Ms. Travis said of the president.
While young men wrestled each other to the ground, Mr. Trump sat chatting with Dave McCormick, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania. A few feet away was Mr. Musk, seated between Dina Powell McCormick, the senator's wife and a top aide in the first Trump administration, and Jim Jordan, the Republican representative from Ohio (and a two-time college wrestling champion and former coach himself). Mr. Musk played around on his phone while the wrestling was underway, reposting videos filmed moments earlier that showed him shaking hands with the president while the crowd cheered.
'I know there's a lot of concern about what he's doing, as far as the DOGE stuff and all,' said Mr. Scandle, the retired police officer from Pennsylvania. 'I understand everybody's concern. I'm concerned. I own stock, and you know, it's red every day, and I'm worried.'
But, he added, he trusts Mr. Trump to take the wheel when necessary. 'I think everything will work out,' he said. 'It normally always does with him.'
After the wrestling was over, Mr. Trump began to make his way out, walking slowly and waving to the crowd as it roared for him. Mr. Musk bobbed a half-step behind.
Just before he reached the exit, Mr. Trump stopped for one last moment to shake the hand of a young fellow with a front-row seat. A minute later, Mr. Musk stopped to shake his hand, too.
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