In case you had been questioning why Elon Musk abruptly determined to plunge greater than $130 million supporting Donald Trump within the 2024 U.S. election, the primary reply arrived on Wednesday — when Musk’s web price elevated by a whopping $15 billion. Which, if you happen to do the mathematics, comes out to a 11,538 p.c return on funding.
And that is not all Musk and his corporations are more likely to get out of the election end result.
First a fast recap: Musk’s help for Trump was removed from inevitable. Certainly, again in July 2022, when he was finalizing his Twitter takeover, Musk tweeted that Trump ought to “grasp up his hat and sail into the sundown.” This was in response to Trump calling Musk “one other bullshit artist.” After the sundown remark, Trump hit again by recounting Musk’s requests for presidency subsidies in his first time period: “I may have stated ‘drop to your knees and beg’ and he would have performed it,” Trump wrote.
The 2 had been feuding on and off since Musk was appointed to Trump’s advisory councils in 2017, then resigned when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris local weather accords. Musk’s politics seem to have been drifting rightwards for years, however initially he supported Florida governor Ron DeSantis over Trump within the GOP primaries — to the purpose of internet hosting DeSantis’ marketing campaign launch in a disastrous Twitter Areas stream in 2023.
Two years after the “bullshit artist” feud, and 6 months after DeSantis dropped out, Musk formally endorsed Trump. Nonetheless, the world’s richest man took a number of extra months to totally open the floodgates of his fortune. His America PAC spent round $30 million in August and September, then ramped as much as an estimated $130 million whole within the ultimate months of the marketing campaign. That features the notorious $1 million-a-day voter “lottery” that Musk’s personal legal professionals admitted wasn’t really a lottery.
Musk started coordinating with the Trump marketing campaign, and went full “darkish MAGA” at his first Trump rally lower than a month earlier than the election. His midriff-baring X-shaped leaps on stage led to one of many extra memorable strains of the marketing campaign, when VP candidate Tim Walz described Musk “skipping like a dipshit.”
Whether or not Musk’s weird appearances really helped the Trump marketing campaign is an open query, however evidently the billionaire’s money infusion did not damage. What we do not know, and will by no means know is what Musk and Trump mentioned off-stage.
We do know, nonetheless, that Musk has at the least 20 causes to be in search of leniency from the following administration.
The Musk-Trump axis
The tech mogul wants the president-elect as a result of Musk’s corporations face a complete of “at the least 20” federal probes, in response to a New York Instances report. It issues significantly to Musk who Trump picks to steer the Departments of Justice, Labor, and Transportation, on high of any new appointees to the Securities and Trade Fee and Federal Commerce Fee, as a result of all these companies are investigating potential violations at Tesla, SpaceX, NeuraLink, and Twitter/X. All 4 corporations, to not point out Musk himself, may face main fines. Or the investigations could possibly be quietly quashed.
Mashable Gentle Pace
And on the constructive aspect of the ledger, there may be a lot, rather more that Musk may achieve from a second Trump administration. Not simply the extension of these EV subsidies and tax credit that Musk needed in Trump’s first time period, but additionally authorities contracts galore. Musk has gained $16 billion in contracts during the last decade — the overwhelming majority of it through SpaceX, on which NASA is more and more reliant. (Trump may also get to nominate a brand new NASA administrator.)
Roughly $3 billion of that landed in Musk’s coffers during the last yr, so the tax-dollars-to-Musk pipeline is just getting bigger. His Starlink satellite tv for pc web service, which Musk lately claimed he would provide without cost to Hurricane Helene victims (it turned out to be a 30-day free trial), will seemingly earn him billions extra in contracts below Trump, in response to a Washington Submit investigation.
After which there’s the still-vague notion Trump has floated, of Musk really working a major chunk of the federal authorities himself. There is no phrase but on plans for a “Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE),” which Musk named for considered one of his favourite memes. Requested at Trump’s Madison Sq. Backyard rally how a lot this division may reduce from the annual federal finances, Musk stated $2 trillion.
Provided that the federal government’s complete discretionary finances is simply $1.7 trillion, Musk may solely attain this quantity by slashing necessary spending — Social Safety, Medicare and Medicaid, in different phrases. Politicians historically shrink back from slicing these vastly standard applications. Musk, after all, is not any politician, and can by no means must face the voters himself.
What Trump has to concern from Musk
Who has the higher hand on this relationship — probably the most highly effective world chief or the world’s richest man?
Although his bravado would by no means enable him to say so overtly, Trump has a lot to concern from Musk. If the 2 fell out once more — a definite risk, given the huge array of former Trump officers who feuded with their boss in his first time period — Musk has loads of avenues for revenge.
First up, Musk has whole management over Trump’s valuable, the @realdonaldtrump deal with that propelled him to energy again in 2016. In 2021, the account was “completely” suspended after Trump inspired the January 6 riot. When Musk took over, he initially stated he’d depend on a “content material moderation council” to make the restoration determination. A month later Musk did it through Twitter ballot, by which the pro-Trump aspect gained by a hair, with 51.8% of the vote.
What Musk giveth, Musk may also take away — and he has loads of causes to take action. Trump has been convicted, and will but be sentenced, on 34 counts of enterprise fraud. In a separate civil fraud case, he has been ordered to pay an already-reduced $175 million penalty. He nonetheless stands accused in a number of circumstances of trying to overthrow the 2020 election outcomes, to not point out the fees of unlawfully protecting categorized paperwork at Mar-a-Lago.
Musk would not even must go as far as to take away Trump’s account once more; there are various methods to maintain the administration and its scandal-plagued chief in line. The X algorithm has already been tweaked to favor Trump. It will be kid’s play to tweak it once more, de-platforming any Republican politician or appointee who stands as much as Musk. Eradicating his authorities contracts would pose little menace, given how a lot the federal government is reliant on them.
Musk has additionally stated his America PAC will preserve going via the 2026 midterm elections. If Trump would not need to face a Democratic Congress — one that may seemingly have much more causes to question him for a 3rd time — the president-elect and his staff must preserve Musk on their aspect.
It is early days but, and there could also be many extra twists to this story of two extremely mercurial billionaires. However the relationship may simply change into as imbalanced as their relative fortunes. (Musk is price $292 billion and rising, in response to the Forbes checklist; Trump can muster between $4 to eight billion web price relying on the worth of his media firm, which simply erased all of its post-election positive factors.) A lot so, in actual fact, that Musk may quickly earn himself a brand new unofficial title: shadow president.
