It’s not an overstatement to say that Elon Musk, the billionaire proprietor of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is former President Donald Trump’s greatest fanboy — and patron — within the 2024 election.
He’s actually, and comically, leaping at Trump’s aspect at rallies. He’s tweeting (together with, incessantly, canine whistles and misinformation). And to the dismay of some, he has let Trump tweet, too.
Within the spring, Musk launched a political motion committee, merely known as America, lined up different high-profile wealthy guys from his Rolodex, after which threw a further $75 million of his personal cash into the pot. Based on filings with the Federal Election Fee, America PAC has spent greater than $100 million on getting Trump re-elected, sending tons of of canvassers out to speak to voters one-on-one in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
And naturally, this week, Musk pledged to offer away 1,000,000 {dollars} a day till the election to registered swing-state voters who signed his PAC’s petition, solely to reportedly obtain a letter from the Division of Justice warning that the competition may very well be in violation of federal voting regulation.
This story was first featured within the Right now, Defined e-newsletter
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As Musk’s politics transfer ever rightward — or no less than, as Vox’s Zack Beauchamp writes, towards “a selected kind of edgelord bigotry that drifts incessantly into debunked conspiracy theories” — it’s value asking what he needs to get out of the entire deal. An appointment to some unnamed new “authorities effectivity” fee? Untold energy over the companies that search to control his corporations? Or, improbably, a tax break?
What does loyalty to Trump web him — or anybody else courting the previous president’s favor — in the long run?
I spoke with Vox senior reporter Whizy Kim, who has been reporting on Musk, his followers, lawsuits, and even his textual content messages because the months resulting in his 2022 buy of Twitter, to attempt to perceive the place Elon Musk the person, the media mogul, and the politically bold demagogue intersect. What does Musk actually need? And if he will get it, what’s going to it imply for the remainder of us? (Our dialog has been condensed for size and evenly edited.)
Lavanya Ramanathan: Whenever you look again on the second Elon Musk purchased Twitter, and now contemplate it within the present context of how he’s now attempting to take a position closely in politics, do you see parallels there?
Whizy Kim: I don’t assume it’s in any respect an accident that Elon Musk determined to purchase Twitter, after which slowly grew to become extra politically vocal. He has an enormous megaphone now. He’s the proprietor of a website that lots of people nonetheless use, particularly for stuff that’s associated to the information. So I do assume that there’s a direct connection between him first speaking about how Twitter ought to be this public “city sq.” the place everybody can have their beliefs heard, the place free speech is revered, to right now, the place he has reinstated numerous banned accounts, together with Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and different incendiary figures. There’s additionally way more right-wing content material that you simply see on the positioning in the event you go to X right now in contrast to a couple years in the past.
There’s been a giant transformation in the best way Individuals understand Elon Musk since then. Moreover the truth that the worth of Twitter has tanked and the variety of customers has declined, you’ve written about his fanboys, the individuals that basically seemed up him — predominantly younger males. Is he nonetheless actually influential with this set?
Up to now, he was undoubtedly seen as extra of a liberal hero. Not that he was all the time supporting Democratic candidates and politicians, however he was a man who had popularized electrical autos. After I talked to his former followers for a bit, numerous them talked about how they have been drawn to his ardour for local weather change and the surroundings. He cared about the way forward for humanity. They usually noticed him as very very like a mythic heroic determine, form of a Tony Stark. They admired how a lot he gave the impression to be in service of civilization, not simply with Tesla, however even with SpaceX, and desirous to additional humanity’s mission past Earth.
After which the extra he talked on Twitter, particularly about his political opinions, they realized he may very well be very risky. He might actually lash out at anybody who criticized him. A number of individuals informed me that doesn’t appear befitting of a CEO of a number of main corporations, appearing childishly and immaturely in response to somebody possibly making level.
I hear numerous similarities between him and Donald Trump there. What do these two males have in frequent?
Persona-wise, and simply by way of their worldview, what I actually observed from the X dialog that they’d in August was that they each come from a spot of feeling personally aggrieved. Trump at many factors talked about how his opponents had engaged unfairly towards him, all of those felony courtroom instances towards him, these trials, as a result of they don’t need him to win the election. They’ve each incessantly been critics of the media. Elon Musk has additionally talked about how legacy media is admittedly biased and doesn’t platform the reality. They might kind of take a look at one another and say, “Yeah, you get me. We’ve each been unfairly attacked.”
And what’s their finish sport right here? What does Elon Musk stand to realize from an affiliation with Trump, and now a monetary stake in Trump’s victory?
Below the Biden administration, Elon Musk felt that numerous these regulatory companies are staffed with people who find themselves holding an in depth eye over company misbehavior. His corporations have been investigated or fined by totally different authorities companies, whether or not it’s the Labor Board, OSHA, the SEC, or the Division of Transportation, and Elon Musk sees this as unfair. Even when he acknowledges that his corporations didn’t observe security laws, he’ll be like, nicely, these security measures are silly, anyway. I believe I do know greatest. I run my firm. I’m an knowledgeable in these fields. The federal government is simply clunky and slowing us down.
One of many issues that he proposed throughout the Trump interview was some kind of authorities effectivity fee. And Trump was form of like, oh, yeah, that’s a good suggestion … and possibly you may assist run it. Basically, that form of fee would slash the budgets of numerous regulatory companies.
Trump and Musk are kind of framing that as making a authorities that’s extra wise and environment friendly concerning the price range, however actually, it might additionally doubtlessly function a option to flush the budgets of companies which were coming after his corporations. If he has Trump’s ear, you already know, he might say, “Nicely, possibly if you wish to appoint a brand new individual to the Labor Board, it ought to be somebody extra pleasant to companies, slightly than to staff.” That’s a possible form of alliance that they might type.
We all know that billionaires, that Silicon Valley, are oftentimes extra secretive about their involvement in politics. What Elon Musk has been doing is admittedly shining a light-weight on huge enterprise billionaire donors and the best way they function within the political sphere, so it’s simpler to see. The place does this finish for Musk, if Trump wins, or if Trump doesn’t win?
I do assume that he’ll proceed to be extra politically vocal, as a result of he’s opened up a can of worms. It’s tougher to return when there’s a protracted document of him popping out for a Trump crowd, formally endorsing him, and all of that.
Elon Musk is the evolution of what began from Peter Thiel. When Thiel first got here out as this mega-conservative donor, individuals have been like, wow, he’s so open and vocal in a world that tends to be extra liberal. Now, now we have Elon Musk, now we have David Sacks, all these different Silicon Valley figures who’re attempting to elect Trump.
However clearly, one of many the reason why these rich, influential figures attempt to keep quiet is as a result of they need to play either side, proper? Elon Musk has come out so vociferously as pro-Trump and criticizing Biden and criticizing Kamala Harris. If Kamala Harris wins, is there room for Elon to come back again and say, “Hey, let’s nonetheless work collectively in some capability?” That’s going to be a a lot tougher highway.
