What Musk could boost from a Trump presidency
What Musk could boost from a Trump presidency
Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s profitability to the White House might also prove to be a triumph for one of his most visible supporters: Elon Musk.
The globe’s richest man spent election night in Florida with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort as returns came in.
“The people of America gave @realDonaldTrump a crystal obvious mandate for transformation tonight,” Mr Musk wrote on the social media platform X as Trump’s win began to appear all but sure.
And at his win talk at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Trump spent several minutes praising Mr Musk and recounting the successful landing of a rocket manufactured by one of Mr Musk’s companies, SpaceX.
Mr Musk threw his back behind the Republican almost immediately after the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.
As one of the president-elect’s most significant backers, the tech billionaire donated more than $119m (£92m) to pool a Super PAC aimed at re-electing Trump.
He also spent the last weeks before election day running a get-out-the-vote attempt in the battleground states, which included a daily giveaway of $1m to voters in those states. The giveaway became the subject of a legal test, though a judge later ruled they could leave ahead.
After throwing his name, money, and platform behind Trump, Mr Musk has plenty to boost from Trump’s re-election.
The president-elect has said that in a second term, he would invite Mr Musk into his administration to eliminate government waste.
Mr Musk has referred to the potential attempt as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, the name of a meme and cryptocurrency that he has popularised.
The businessman could also advantage from Trump’s presidency through his ownership of SpaceX, which already dominates the business of sending government satellites to space.
With a close friend in the White House, Mr Musk could seek to further capitalise on those government ties.
Mr Musk has criticised rivals including Boeing for the structure of their government contracts, which he says disincentive finishing projects on distribution and on period.
SpaceX has also moved into building spy satellites just as the Pentagon and American spy agencies appear poised to invest billions of dollars into them.
Mr Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla could meanwhile reap gains from an administration that Trump has said would be defined by “the lowest regulatory burden.”
Just last month, the US agency in expense of regulating road safety revealed it was probing Tesla’s self-driving software systems.
Mr Musk has also arrive under fire for allegedly seeking to block Tesla workers from unionising. The United Auto Workers filed unfair labour habit charges against both Trump and Musk after the two talked about Musk supposedly firing striking workers during a exchange on X.
Trump has also pledged to lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
That’s another commitment Mr Musk is likely hoping he will keep.
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