By Rachael Levy and Alexandra Ulmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -In recent days, Republican circles in Washington have buzzed with speculation that former Trump administration official Katie Miller, an aide to Elon Musk and wife of one of the president’s closest advisers, and Musk have had a falling out.
Their social media activity fueled rumors that she was distancing herself from Musk since his explosive break-up with U.S. President Donald Trump.
But in an interview with Reuters, Miller denied that was the case. She said she still works for Musk, though she declined to describe her role or whether she serves as a spokesperson for him or his companies.
“My paycheck still comes from him,” she said.
Late on Wednesday, after she spoke with Reuters, Miller issued a Musk-related press statement, apparently for the first time in around two weeks based on media reports of the statements and a statement received by Reuters. The statement, on behalf of xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, denounced an environmental group’s actions against the company in Tennessee.
Miller is married to influential Trump official Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the administration’s controversial immigration policies and other initiatives. Both worked in Trump’s first administration, which ran from 2017 to 2021.
Katie Miller was appointed by Trump as an adviser to the bureaucracy-slashing Department of Government Efficiency led by Musk, whose companies include SpaceX and Tesla, until around the time he left that role at the end of May. Musk’s feud with Trump, over the administration’s spending plans, swiftly followed.
She left the government to work for Musk over a month ago and appeared to work for Musk’s companies as a communications adviser. Her exact role was never made public.
Miller recently revamped her X profile, which once featured a banner photo of a SpaceX rocket, to highlight her life as a mother and wife. She posted photos of her workouts and beach excursions with her children.
In a move that often signals a personal or professional break, Musk in recent days unfollowed her account on X, his social media platform. Weeks before, he had unfollowed Stephen Miller, though he has re-followed him.
With Musk recently parting ways with several top executives at his companies and the apparent split on X, three Republican sources told Reuters they suspected that Katie Miller had also split with Musk.
Katie Miller did not respond to questions about why she had changed her X profile and why Musk had unfollowed her. Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk has been close to the Millers and spent time at their Washington-area home while working on DOGE, according to people familiar with the matter.
But Katie Miller’s continued alliance with Musk raised eyebrows among Republican operatives.
People who have worked with her describe her as a Trump loyalist and said they were surprised that she had continued to work for the billionaire as he attempted to torpedo Trump policies that her husband worked closely on, like the Big Beautiful Bill.
(Reporting by Rachael Levy in Washington and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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