The billionaire entrepreneur injected more than 130 million US dollars into Donald Trump’s campaign. What role can it play in the mandate of the next American president?
Published at 12:45 a.m.
Updated at 5:00 a.m.
What role did Elon Musk play in Trump’s campaign?
A financial role, first. The billionaire, chairman and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was one of the biggest donors to the Republican Party, injecting more than 130 million into Donald Trump’s campaign, whether by financing a political action committee ( Super PAC) or by bringing out the pro-Trump vote by distributing 1 million per day to voters in key states. Crumbs, considering that Elon Musk’s personal fortune is estimated at 237 billion…
Musk also played an unprecedented personal role, thanks to his control of the social network targeted information and disinformation directed to this or that county or district, in order to fuel attraction for Donald Trump’s proposals.
“Beyond the financial aspect, there is this informational aspect which reflects a social phenomenon which is that today, opinion is much more manufactured by social networks than by advertising channels. traditional information”, summarizes Thierry Aimar, teacher-researcher in economics at the University of Lorraine and lecturer at Sciences Po Paris.
Elon Musk had supported Democrats in the previous three elections. Why did he put all his weight behind getting Donald Trump elected?
A real question, considering that he has, in the past, expressed doubts about Trump. But it is clear that the two billionaires share the same entrepreneurial philosophy based on free enterprise, freedom from regulation, radical individualism and free trade at all levels.
PHOTO ANDREW KELLY, ARCHIVES REUTERS
Elon Musk, arms in the air, during a Republican rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on October 27
“Musk has suffered in California from the weight of increasing regulation of his economic activities. I think he experienced this interventionism from public authorities very badly under the Biden administration. He had the feeling of being hampered in his freedom of enterprise,” suggests Thierry Aimar. Ironic, he adds, considering that, in the past, Musk has benefited from billions in public money. According to a recent analysis of New York Times, SpaceX and Tesla have received at least $15.4 billion in government contracts over the past decade.
For Thierry Aimar, there is perhaps another, more personal reason. South African by origin, Canadian on his mother’s side, arriving in the United States in his twenties, Elon Musk has always been a UFO within the American establishment. “I think at some point he saw himself a bit like Trump, as someone who was always marginalized despite his wealth. So I think he felt relatively close on a human level to this thing. »
How will Elon Musk benefit from Donald Trump’s victory?
The president-elect seems to rule out the presence of the billionaire within the future cabinet. But he said he would invite the world’s richest man to be part of his administration to eliminate waste in government. Musk would thus be approached to manage a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), aimed at bureaucratic simplification and unrestricted deregulation.
PHOTO MATT ROURKE, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
The billionaire entrepreneur speaking at a town hall meeting with voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania in Folsom on October 17
According to David Colon, professor at Sciences Po Paris, expert in propaganda and communication, this appointment would be a form of return of the favor in return for Musk’s support. It would allow the boss of X, SpaceX and Tesla to “access a position of responsibility, which should allow him not only to apply his political ideas, but to serve the interests of his companies”.
Musk could also become a sort of “evening visitor,” discreetly and unofficially advising the president. Mr. Colon recalls that during Trump’s first term, billionaire Rupert Murdoch supported him in the home stretch of the 2016 campaign before exerting “a hidden influence” on the President of the United States in the service of his own convictions and above all the interests of his empire, which had notably facilitated and accelerated the sale at a very good price from Fox to Disney.
PHOTO EMILY NAJERA, ARCHIVES THE NEW YORK TIMES
Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, last September
Could Musk be in active politics? Even if the main person concerned does not rule it out, Thierry Aimar doubts it. “I can’t see him assuming the role of a minister because fundamentally, I think he’s absolutely not interested in it. He has other fish to fry. » Nothing says, moreover, that Trump and Musk can accompany each other for a very long time, “because they are two temperaments which, at a certain level, would end up opposing each other”.
In the shorter term, the fallout from Trump’s return is already concrete for the billionaire. The Guardian reports that, as of Wednesday morning, shares of Tesla, in which he has a 13% stake, were up about 15%, implying a wealth gain of $15 billion. According to a financial analyst cited in the same article, a Trump victory could add as much as $200 billion to Tesla’s value, which would increase Musk’s wealth by about $26 billion in total.
