Now that Musk has initiated the process of buying Twitter, the company’s presence in Washington is likely to change drastically, according to six lobbyists and government officials who have dealt with him in his roles as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations and their former employers.

Musk has a much more sharp-elbowed approach to leadership than former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who left the policy work mainly to his C-suite and allowed Twitter’s lobbyists to cultivate a friendly, socially aware reputation on Capitol Hill. He’s also much more hands-on than tech CEOs like Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who largely defer to their government affairs shops in Washington.

And Musk’s persona is aggressively larger-than-life, meaning outreach from him has more gravity than lesser-known car and defense CEOs.

“He relies on his cult of personality,” said one former Federal Communications Commission official, who dealt with Musk across a range of regulatory fights around Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, which frequently needs the FCC’s approval for projects. “At some point, a CEO can’t steer the ship and do everything — they have to delegate appropriately. It’s always been interesting because it doesn’t always appear that the people around him have truly been delegated authority.”