It is out with Elon Musk and in with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. 

The Daily Mail reports that President Donald Trump appears to have swapped - or, at least, he is thinking about swapping - Elon Musk for Sam Altman.

As we already know, half of this equation has already taken place - Musk has essentially been exiled from the White House. The other half, namely, Altman joining the administration in some capacity, does not appear to have taken place just yet.

There is an added level of drama here in that Musk and Altman are not too fond of each other.

Background

At the beginning of the Trump administration, it was all Trump and Musk. The president, of course, selected Musk to be a special government employee who helped the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to find and cut waste, fraud, and abuse from government spending.

During this time, Altman was confined to the sidelines, given his and Musk's previous fallout.

The Daily Mail explains:

The two founded OpenAI together in 2015 as a non-profit to ensure the landscape of artificial intelligence remained ethical amid technological advancements. However, due to competing AI models from Google and Amazon, OpenAI shifted to a public benefit corporation, which Musk blasted for straying from the original business model. The Tesla CEO left the company in 2018, and a bitter feud ensued between the two as Musk founded his own AI firm, xAI.

Things were going well between Musk and Trump until the so-called "big, beautiful bill." Musk did not and does not like the bill, as he believes that it is bad news financially for America. Trump, however, has claimed that Musk has a different issue with the bill, namely, he does not like that the bill eliminates the Electric Vehicle Mandate.

Whatever the case may be, Trump and Musk had a somewhat bitter falling out that continues to this day. Musk, most recently, has criticized Trump and his administration for its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Here's how Altman snuck in the back door:

It, apparently, was this fallout that allowed Altman to sneak in the backdoor.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Just two weeks after Elon Musk’s spectacular breakup with President Trump, the tech billionaire’s nemesis strode into the dining room of the president’s New Jersey golf club wearing a suit and a wide smile.

According to the Journal, Altman has essentially become Trump's AI expert.

This could be beneficial for Altman, and detrimental to Musk, in several ways. It may, for example, give Altman the edge in the AI industry.

The Daily Mail reports, "[Altman's] firm OpenAI - which owns ChatGPT - is seen as having one of the brightest futures in the burgeoning AI industry, with Altman's $1.8 billion fortune likely to soar a as a result."