“A star is born: Elon,” Donald Trump said in a lengthy shout-out to his biggest donor as he declared victory in the US presidential race on Wednesday morning.
Trump’s impending victory heralds a new era for Musk – already the world’s richest person with a fortune of $260 billion – whose bet on a tense US election has paid off in which he is set to become one of the president’s most influential political and business advisers.
Musk’s promised role as head of a new Department of Government Efficiency will give the billionaire sweeping powers to recommend deep cuts to what he sees as a “vast federal bureaucracy.” . . “It greatly hinders America.”
Musk has also pledged to support deregulation and will gain influence over US policy on artificial intelligence, space exploration, and electric vehicles — all sectors in which he has a personal stake through his leadership of xAI, SpaceX, and Tesla.
“He’s a character, he’s a special guy, he’s an absolute genius,” Trump said of Musk on Wednesday. “We have to protect our geniuses, we don’t have many of them.”
Earlier in the evening, musk I posted a picture of himself carrying a sink into the Oval Office, an offbeat reference to a similar photo he tweeted when he entered X before the social media platform was acquired for $44 billion in October 2022.
last Photo on Tuesday It showed him huddled in conversation with Trump at an election night party at Mar-a-Lago in Florida with the caption: “The future will be like this 🔥 [fire emoji]”.
Musk — a self-proclaimed “pro-free speech” who said he previously voted for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — has moved sharply to the right in recent years. He has joined Trump’s campaign on issues such as immigration and regulation, aversion to the mainstream media and what he called “woke” politics.
Musk publicly endorsed Trump hours after he survived an assassination attempt on July 13, devoting more time and resources to his re-election.
He has contributed more than $100 million to the pro-Republican America PAC, hosted town halls in key states like Pennsylvania, and distributed $1 million a day to voters who signed his petition in favor of free speech. On Election Day, he bused Amish voters to the polls who were unable to drive themselves.
And Musk got a huge return on that investment — a Trump victory and adding billions to his net worth as Tesla stock rose nearly 13 percent in pre-market trading on Wednesday.
In the months leading up to the vote, Musk used his own megaphone – X – as its owner and the most popular account with more than 200 million followers. He flooded the platform with pro-Trump messages, claims about election fraud and warnings that Kamala Harris would destroy America if she won the White House.
Over the course of 24 hours on Tuesday, he tweeted nearly 200 times, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, garnering about 955 million views, after averaging more than 100 posts per day in the month leading up to the vote.
During an interview with conservative journalist Tucker Carlson on Tuesday evening, Musk said: “My philosophy is to play, to play to win, not half-measure.”
Critics have argued that Musk has introduced bias into the platform’s algorithms and amplified far-right narratives and conspiracy theories with little or no evidence, at the same time as diminishing his abilities to moderate and fact-check.
Some have warned that Musk has become one of the biggest purveyors of misinformation and electoral conspiracies in the run-up to the election, prompting, for example, allegations of potential voter fraud. An analysis by fact-checking group PolitiFact of 450 Musk posts in the first two weeks of October revealed a wealth of misinformation, which received nearly 679 million views and more than 5.3 million likes.
But Musk’s election campaign has won plaudits from Trump’s inner circle and his libertarian tech allies, who claim his extraordinary intervention has boosted Republican votes and brought transparency to politics.
In a Podcast “I don’t think this race would be close if it weren’t for what Elon Musk is doing with X and showing people what’s going on,” Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday.
Sean Maguire, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and a serial Musk and Trump supporter, books On X: “The turning point was Elon buying Twitter.”
President “It’s very important to open up DOD/Intel to entrepreneurial companies like yours,” Musk responded to Luckey on
Investors are also betting that Musk’s own companies will benefit. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said that even if Trump — a prominent skeptic of the technology — withdraws support for electric vehicles, “Tesla has scale and scope that is unparalleled in the electric vehicle industry, and this dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in An unparalleled sector.” – Support environment.”
Even before the election results came in, Musk made it clear that he would play an active role in American politics for years to come. During a live-streamed question-and-answer session as he traveled on a private plane from Texas to watch the results with Trump at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago, Musk pledged to continue funding his America Pac party whatever the outcome.
President
“Something has to be done to address the damage that is being done [George] “Soros did this to the American system,” Musk said, referring to the billionaire financier who is a prominent supporter of liberal and progressive causes. “We should have DAs who protect the citizens of their cities. It’s crazy that we have so many DAs in our city who don’t prosecute crime.
In the live stream, Musk outlined plans for a role leading the proposed Government Efficiency Administration — which he nicknamed “Doge” in reference to the token he’s promoting on the “X” — in Trump’s second administration. Tesla’s chief said he wants to cut “extensive federal bureaucracy.” [that] “It greatly hinders America.”
“We will conduct a comprehensive review of all government agencies. . . . There is a lot of duplicate responsibility where multiple agencies actually have overlapping portfolios,” Musk said. “There are a lot of people working in government and we just need to move them into more productive roles in the private sector.” “
Musk said the cuts would be made “in a humane way” and floated the idea of paying government employees’ wages for two years while they look for new jobs. He also said he wants to see term limits for bureaucrats and a wide range of rules significantly scaled back.
“We still want regulations, they just need to be necessary. I liken it to referees on the field. You don’t want to have referees, but you don’t want to have more referees than players. ‘It’s crazy.’
Additional reporting by Christina Kriddle in San Francisco
