Elon Musk, who spent more than $100 million and turned his social media platform X into an online megaphone to get out the vote for Donald Trump, has emerged as one of the biggest winners in the presidential election.
The world’s richest man was the only Fortune 100 CEO to choose a side, endorsing Trump moments after an attempt on his life in July during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Musk went all out, hosting town halls in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and giving voters in the swing state $1 million checks.
Rubbing shoulders with other wealthy donors at Mar-a-Lago as Trump rode a red wave to success, Musk chirp Photo of a SpaceX rocket launch: “The future is going to be great.”
Will Mask’s election bet pay off?
Trump made clear in his victory speech that Musk would have an ally in the White House. “A star is born,” Trump said of the tech billionaire.
That star power could give Musk outsized influence over government policy and the federal agencies that oversee his constellation of six award-winning companies from Tesla to SpaceX. $15.4 billion in federal government contracts Over the past decade, according to open secrets.
It’s common for bosses to tap business leaders to take on prominent roles in their departments. Dan Schnur, who studies strategic political communications at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, said Musk’s reach could be unprecedented.
“If Donald Trump is Willy Wonka, then Elon Musk just won all five golden tickets,” Schnur said. “Trump not only respects him, not only does he revere him, Trump feels indebted to him. Additionally, it’s hard to imagine Musk writing a wish list that Trump wouldn’t rubber-sign.
Musk may have a big role in the Trump White House
Trump pledged to give Musk a formal role in his administration to cut government spending, which he referred to as his “Cost-Cutting Secretary.” Musk joked that he would run a “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, in reference to the cryptocurrency he champions.
Musk tweeted that he was excited to work with Trump on a committee to cut government spending. He has bragged that he can cut $2 trillion from the federal budget but has offered no details about how.
Moreover, Musk could have a say in choosing the heads of the regulatory agencies that oversee his companies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, said Eric Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
In a parody of Musk carrying a porcelain sink into the Oval Office — a reference to him carrying an actual sink to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco after taking over the company — Musk wrote: “Let that sink in.”
Geeta Johar, a professor at Columbia Business School in New York, said she had never seen such an “explicit trade-off” before.
“I think it could be a very convenient arrangement that benefits Musk,” Gohar said.
Giving Musk the power to shape agencies he has criticized in the past could potentially pose a problem, according to Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
“Having business leaders on an advisory committee is special,” Clark said. “But the chair of any efficiency-type committee should put the public interest first. It would be impossible for Elon Musk to do that when Elon Musk has had so many controversial interactions with federal government agencies.”
What does Trump’s victory mean for Tesla and SpaceX?
Tesla shares rose on Wednesday as investors bet that Trump’s return to the White House will boost the electric car maker.
Trump, who has expressed disdain for electric cars and tax breaks granted by President Joe Biden, signaled a shift after endorsing Musk. “I’m for electric cars. I have to be, you know, because Elon very strongly endorsed me,” Trump said at a rally in August. “So I don’t have a choice.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives estimates that Tesla could see a jump of more than $100 billion in market value. Eliminating subsidies would hurt Tesla less than other electric car makers.
“We believe a Trump win could add $40 to $50 per share to Tesla stock,” he wrote in a note.
With a direct line to the White House, Musk may have a chance to clear regulatory hurdles for self-driving robotaxis and get Congress to approve a national standard for self-driving cars, business observers told USA TODAY.
Musk has been involved in a dispute with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the use of driver-assistance technology. The safety agency is investigating whether Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving (supervised)” system was responsible for four crashes, including one that killed a pedestrian.
On Election Night, Trump also praised the role Starlink satellites played in connecting people in hurricane-ravaged North Carolina.
SpaceX is already a prime contractor for NASA. Trump has publicly expressed support for Musk’s plans to send rockets to Mars by 2028. “We’re going to put an American astronaut on Mars,” Trump said in October.
Among other potential benefits for Musk, experts say reduced regulation could fuel the growth of XAi, the operator of Musk’s chatbots, and Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company that was recently licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for testing on humans.
“Elon Musk and a certain section of Silicon Valley are very concerned about over-regulation of this economy, and there needs to be a radical change,” said James Pethokoukis, a senior fellow at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute think tank.
Musk has big plans for his America PAC
Musk’s ambitions do not end there.
Musk is actually promoting what he claims to be X usage historywhich could see its influence expand during Trump’s second term.
with Her net worth is estimated at $264 billionWith control of a major social media platform and 200 million followers commenting on his every meme, Musk is already planning to leverage his personal brand and newfound political power to bolster the conservative political movement he has embraced.
“The US PAC will continue to operate after this election,” Musk said on a live stream Tuesday as he headed to Palm Beach on his private plane to watch the return with Trump and his family, vowing that his PAC will “aim for significant impact.” In the next elections.
