NEW YORK, November 15. /TASS/. US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has claimed that President-elect Donald Trump and himself have a public mandate for change.

"The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear. The people have spoken, the people want change," Musk said at the America First Policy Institute Gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Musk also noted jokingly that unlike influential investor George Soros, he supported Republicans, claiming to be "the George Soros of the Right."

NBC News reported earlier, citing sources, that Musk had begun to wear on people in Trump’s inner circle. "He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it," the media outlet quoted one of the people as saying.

Trump announced earlier that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy would lead the Department of Government Efficiency in his new administration. The US president-elect added that the new body will work with the White House and its Office of Management and Budget to "drive large-scale structural reform." According to Trump, "a smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence," which will come on July 4, 2026.