Joe Gebbia, a close friend of Mr. Musk’s, is expected to be a part of a small council of advisers that will oversee the Department of Government Efficiency.

© Caroline Brehman/EPA, via Shutterstock

The warm welcome for a technology executive whose purchases of the president’s digital coin won him a White House tour illustrates inconsistencies in the administration’s views toward visitors from China.

This approach wouldn’t give Trump even what he told Congress he wanted.