Elon Musk is the world’s richest man and a key aide of US President Donald Trump.
During 2024, he put his considerable cultural and financial importance behind Trump’s successful presidential campaign.
The billionaire invested more than $119 million (about €116 million) in a political action committee, “America PAC”, to elect Trump and spent several weeks before the election canvassing voters in key battleground states. Encouraged for. Offering million-dollar prizes.
He contributed more than $280 million to Republican candidates at all levels in the 2023–24 election cycle.
As a major supporter of Trump, observers suggest Musk, whose net worth is currently estimated at around $290 billion, is now set to benefit from a direct line to the White House. The question is how?
South Africa’s richest export
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, to property developer, engineer and former local politician Errol Musk, and Canadian model and dietitian Maye Musk, the billionaire first moved to the US in the 90s.
He co-founded early Internet businesses such as online city guide Zip2 and financial services platform X.com, which later merged with PayPal, a similar platform. Today, he is perhaps best known for founding the private space exploration company SpaceX and providing funding for the founding of electric car manufacturer Tesla. He is the chief executive officer of both. He also founded tunnel constructor The Boring Company and brain implant developer Neuralink.
Musk has been vocal about his concerns for human population and the need to become multi-planetary. In 2022, he tweeted his belief that “Population decline due to low birth rates is a much greater threat to civilization than global warming,” a statement criticized by both climate scientists and demographers. He is the father of at least 12 children.
He is pursuing his ambition of sending humans to Mars through SpaceX, which is in partnership with NASA to land astronauts on the surface of the Red Planet within the next decade.
muskrat rotates to the right
Musk has not always supported Trump. He previously described himself as a moderate between Democrats and Republicans. His donation history reflects contributions to candidates from both parties at the state and national levels.
In 2022, he suggested that Trump is too old to be president and should “ride off into the sunset.” Trump responded that Musk had “begged” him for subsidies during his first stint in the White House.
But by the end of the 2024 election, any authority had evaporated, and Musk had established himself in Trump’s good graces.
Musk has long been a fiery public personality. Much of this came through his high public profile on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. In 2022, they acquired the platform for $44 billion and renamed it “X”. During his tenure at the helm of the platform, Musk has also become a recognized purveyor of misinformation. He also fired several staff members, allowed previously banned, controversial users including Trump to return to the platform, and alienated advertisers.
This ultimately led to an exodus of other users from the platform, and at the time of the election, the value of X was about one-fifth of the original price paid by Musk.
But that doesn’t concern Musk, who after buying Twitter joined the group of several billionaires with a mass media platform. Others like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have followed suit.
“There are rich people who … want to make money and see the world through the lens of their business interests and want to accumulate more wealth,” said David Faris, an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University, who wrote the study. The impact of money on American politics is written in
“And then there are people who are very rich, [they say] ‘I don’t care if I lose $44 billion by buying Twitter.’ [Musk] It seems to fall into the latter category. “They are exploiting their wealth in a way that makes no economic sense.”
Will Elon Musk enter politics?
Being born in South Africa, he cannot run for US President, but, as a US citizen, he can run for lower office. He may also be able to influence policy through his Trump connections.
Steve Nelson, a political economist at Northwestern University, has observed a trend among billionaires to seek political office, although this has mostly been in autocratic regimes. This is less common in democracies where partisans donate money to candidates they support.
“For someone like Musk, it’s probably the case that you have a very strong personal interest in pursuing a particular policy agenda that you don’t think can be controlled in a more indirect way,” Nelson told DW.
Even if he stays away from politics, Musk’s relationship with Trump is certain. He was made joint head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, effectively an advisory panel designed to cut US government spending.
Nelson can imagine Musk trying to seek political office because he feels that if he were actually in power he would be in a better position to pursue certain objectives rather than relying on others.
“For Musk, I think he has an almost messiah-like belief in his own efficacy and a clear agenda around frontier technologies,” Nelson told DW.
SpaceX will likely thrive during Trump’s second term, but other Musk businesses might not. Trump has said he would cut climate-focused initiatives, including electric transportation — Tesla’s bread and butter.
But it’s possible that Musk’s support for Trump could help his companies avoid adverse policy positions or create a more attractive environment. If so, it would further emphasize Musk’s tendency to anticipate and exploit changing cultural and political tides for his own interests.
This article was originally published on November 8, 2024 and was updated on January 20, 2025, following the second inauguration of Donald Trump.
Edited by: Davis Van Opdorp
