No, Musk didn’t say Trump will ‘do anything’ he says | Fact check

A Nov. 17 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes an image of what appears to be an X post from billionaire Elon Musk about his influence on President-elect Donald Trump.
“Lib media already trying to create a schism between me and Trump, saying I’m overstaying my welcome at Mar a Lago, that I’m annoying him, ha!!!” reads the text of the purported X post. “Trump and I are as solid as can be. He knows I got him elected and he’s going to do anything I tell him to do.”  
The post was shared 100 times in 12 days. Other versions of the claim spread on Threads and X.
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The image is fabricated and was first shared by a Reddit user who labeled it that way. There is no evidence Musk made the statement attributed to him.
Musk spent tens of millions of dollars to help re-elect Trump and appeared alongside him at numerous events. Trump quipped at a Nov. 14 Mar-a-Lago event that he “can’t get him (Musk) out of here,” The Independent reported.
But the claim that Musk posted to X about his supposed influence on Trump is baseless.
No such statement appeared on Musk’s X account. Nor was there an archived version of the supposed post. There are also no news reports from legitimate outlets about Musk making any such comment.  
Before it was shared on Facebook, the image was posted to Reddit in a forum that says all of its posts “should be considered ironic/parodic/satirical” unless noted otherwise. The Reddit post included a “fake news” label, and the user who posted the image has a bio that describes them as a “fake tweet writer.”
The Facebook post is an example of what could be called “stolen satire,” in which content originally written and presented as parody is captured and reposted in a way that makes it appear authentic. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, which is what happened here.
Fact check: Video of Rachel Maddow tearing up over Elon Musk post is altered
Trump has publicly praised Musk on numerous occasions, including during his election night victory speech in which he called the Tesla CEO a “super genius.”
That said, Trump has not always agreed with Musk’s recommended picks for various positions in his second administration, as Reuters reported.  
For example, while Musk backed Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick for treasury secretary, Trump instead said he would nominate former Soros Fund Management executive Scott Bessent for the Cabinet post. Lutnick was later named Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of altered images purporting to show statements from Musk, including ones in which he supposedly threatened to suspend X users for mocking him and calling Trump supporters “weird.”
USA TODAY reached out to the Reddit user who posted the image and the Facebook user who shared it for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
Reuters and the Australian Associated Press also debunked the claim.  
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