In the past six months, Maye Musk, the mother of Elon Musk, has been to China, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates, visits that come as foreign leaders are jockeying for influence over the Trump administration.

Maye, 76, has for years travelled the world to model, speak and promote her memoir. But lately, she seems to be even more in demand, especially outside the US. And her celebrity has taken on greater significance now that Musk has considerable influence over how billions of dollars in military spending and foreign aid will get paid out.

In late 2024, she visited China at least four times to endorse or model for seven brands there, including makeup products, down jackets and massage devices. Her visits were promoted by state media outlets, which in the past have quoted her calling for improved ties between the US and China.

In October, three weeks before the US presidential election, she headlined a forum on women in Kazakhstan, where she spoke about her son's success, according to Kazinform, a state news agency there.

And in January, the week before Donald J. Trump's second inauguration, she was in Dubai, speaking at a government conference on influencers with the former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson. Her talk was titled "How I Raised Three Amazing Children, Including the Richest Man in the World" according to the state-run Emirates News Agency.

All of these trips were taken after Musk became a staunch supporter of Trump's campaign, and on several of them, she waded into US politics.

Several of the countries where she recently appeared have concerns to press in Washington.

Beijing opposes newly announced US tariffs on its goods, and leaders there appear to see Musk, who himself has extensive business interests in China, as a potential ally. Kazakhstan is hoping that the Trump administration will end restrictions on trade. And the United Arab Emirates buys weapons from Washington and has spent hundreds of millions on lobbyists and donations to think tanks.

Maye has long travelled extensively for work, both within the US and overseas. But her activities in China have intensified in recent months, a review of her social media posts over the past four years by The New York Times found. She endorsed five Chinese brands last year, while the year before, she travelled to China mostly to promote her book and for modelling work, appearing in one ad.

The Times could not confirm how much Maye has earned overseas in recent months. Although in her endorsements and speeches, she often emphasises her connection to Musk, there is no evidence that she has sought to influence US government policy. Nor is there evidence that she has taken work linked to China's government.

Maye's agency, the Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency; her manager, Anna Sherman; and a lawyer who has recently worked for Maye, Doreen Small, did not respond to questions about her international engagements, including how much she has earned for speaking and endorsing products. The five Chinese brands she endorsed last year did not reply to questions about how much she was paid.

Her activities raise the possibility that foreign governments could see her as a conduit to Musk, said Scott Amey, the general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group. "The fear is," he said, "would people be using her to get one degree of separation from her son and two degrees of separation from the Oval Office?"

Musk is already dogged by ethical concerns stemming from his businesses, such as SpaceX, which has billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts. "We don't need other potential conflicts of interest that involve his family to be added to his long list that already exists," Amey said.

The FBI normally scrutinises the foreign contacts of presidential advisers and their family members before granting security clearances. Contacts from countries seen as potential US adversaries, like China, typically receive more scrutiny.

It is unclear if Maye or her contacts have been vetted. The White House has said that her son is a "special government employee", a short-term adviser who is subject to federal ethics law, but has not disclosed his security clearance status. Before joining the US government, he had skirted reporting requirements as a federal contractor.

Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, did not respond to questions about his clearance status or his mother's work overseas. He said on X on February 14 that he has had a "top secret clearance for many years".

It is notable that both Musk and his mother have interests in China, said Norman Eisen, a former White House ethics counsel in the Obama administration and a founder of the State Democracy Defenders Fund, which is suing Musk and his team on behalf of current and recently laid-off federal workers. (Musk's company, Tesla, makes half its cars in China, for instance.)

But Maye's business trips to China and other countries independently deserve attention, Eisen said. "Given the exceptionally powerful role of Musk, who may be the single most influential person in the executive branch, even beyond Trump himself, these foreign entanglements are a cause for concern,” he said.

New York Times News Service