Lower than a month earlier than the presidential election, Elon Musk has made himself a near-constant presence within the race. At a rally for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Musk jumps with glee carrying a customized black Maga hat. On social media, he posts AI-generated photographs attacking Kamala Harris. Behind the scenes, he bankrolls one of many largest pro-Trump political motion committees.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has emerged as a singular affect on the marketing campaign in ways in which set him aside from even essentially the most politically lively billionaires and tech elite. He’s all of sudden a vocal Trump surrogate, marketing campaign mega-donor, casual coverage adviser, media influencer and prolific supply of on-line disinformation. On the identical time, he’s the world’s richest man and the proprietor of one of many United States’ most influential social networks, whereas additionally working as a authorities protection contractor and wielding energy over essential satellite tv for pc communications infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Federal Election Fee filings confirmed that Musk donated $75m within the final three months to his pro-Trump America Pac. The group has develop into a serious floor recreation operative in battleground states, and Musk is its solely donor.
Though the ultra-wealthy have all the time tried to affect politics, few individuals in US historical past have possessed the combination of immense assets and intent to make use of them to sway an election that Musk does. He has develop into symbolic of the outsize energy over democracy held by the ultra-wealthy and is relishing the highlight that his distinctive place has awarded him, stated Larry Noble, former FEC normal counsel.
“He clearly likes consideration,” Noble stated. “Not like a whole lot of very rich individuals who get entangled in politics who need to be within the background and need to work by means of darkish cash teams so their identify isn’t connected to sure issues, he’s on the market. He needs his identify on the market. I feel he needs to be adored.”
Musk’s X turns into a megaphone for Trump
Trump and Musk have a contentious previous: Musk known as Trump “too previous” to hunt re-election in a sequence of tweets in 2022 and Trump referred to Musk as a “bullshit artist”. However the two males have develop into extraordinarily intertwined in the course of the 2024 presidential race. Musk introduced his full help for Trump in July following months of telegraphing his opposition to Joe Biden and the Democratic celebration. Within the months since, Musk has fervently dedicated his cash and affect to the Trump marketing campaign. The tech mogul is fond of claiming this can be “the final election” if Trump doesn’t win.
Musk’s most seen Trump help takes place on X, the platform previously generally known as Twitter that he purchased for $44bn in 2022. Musk’s account has over 200 million followers, and he has directed the corporate’s engineers to enhance visibility of his tweets – the algorithm now boosts Musk’s personal tweets past that of different customers in order that extra individuals should see them. It was Musk who made the choice to revive Trump to the social community in late 2022.
As election day nears, Musk’s feed has develop into a relentless stream of reward for Trump and vitriol towards Harris. A big proportion of his tweets amplify false or deceptive data, and the individuals who Musk interacts with on the platform are usually far-right accounts with a historical past of spreading misinformation. Musk’s AI picture generator, Grok, has additionally develop into one of the distinguished sources of political deepfakes which have permeated the election.
Musk has used X to assist the Trump marketing campaign, not solely by echoing its speaking factors or amplifying the president, however by stopping the unfold of fabric that could possibly be dangerous. Reporter Ken Klippenstein revealed a file of background data on vice-presidential candidate JD Vance in early October that was obtained by means of a hack of the Trump marketing campaign allegedly by Iran. The New York Instances reported final week that the marketing campaign requested X to stop hyperlinks to the revealed file from spreading there, which X adopted by means of on, blocking hyperlinks to it and suspending Klippenstein’s account.
The transfer stands in distinction to Musk’s frequent proclamations about being a “free speech absolutist”, and to the incessant assaults by Republicans on content material moderation selections made by social media platforms that they declare are akin to censorship. Suffocating the Vance file additionally ran opposite to his personal said causes for getting Twitter. Musk had tweeted that he would guarantee one thing like Twitter’s suppression of hyperlinks to the preliminary New York Submit story of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer would by no means occur once more.
“Folks like Musk, they’re those utilizing their cash and lawfare to try to suppress actual work that’s simply attempting to contribute to the general public dialogue,” stated Callum Hood, head of analysis on the Heart for Countering Digital Hate. Musk sued CCDH after it revealed analysis that confirmed hate speech and extremism had risen underneath Musk’s possession. He misplaced the case however has appealed.
Musk the mega-donor
Whereas Musk has rallied on-line for Trump, he has dedicated massive quantities of cash to financing on-the-ground operations and media campaigns for the previous president. His spending is an escalation of a yearslong, quiet funding of Republican teams that has turned him into one of many nation’s largest proper wing donors.
Musk’s America Pac, which was based earlier this 12 months, is presently doing get-out-the-vote work on the bottom in battleground states. Musk has successfully moved his base of operations to Pennsylvania to help the hassle, in keeping with the New York Instances, and he’s planning a sequence of occasions within the state following his look at a Trump rally there earlier this month.
“That’s what will determine this election, particularly in Pennsylvania,” Musk stated on the rally in Butler. “And actually, you need to simply be a pest. Simply be a pest to everybody you understand, individuals on the road, in all places. Vote, vote, vote. Combat, combat, combat. Vote, vote, vote.”
The cash will not be solely flowing to get-out-the-vote initiatives, although. Musk has donated to conservative group Constructing America’s Future, which has arrange money awards for individuals who deliver the group proof of election fraud. Constructing America’s Future has additionally funneled cash to a Tremendous Pac that HuffPost reported has run focused adverts calling Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, “America’s pro-Israel energy couple” in areas of Michigan with massive numbers of Arab and Muslim voters. The Pac is concurrently working adverts geared toward Jewish voters in Pennsylvania that accuse Harris of being too pro-Palestinian.
Musk is completely different from different rich donors in current many years who’ve divided their political engagement into two types, in keeping with Benjamin Soskis, a senior analysis affiliate on the City Institute who’s an knowledgeable within the historical past of philanthropy. One is to craft a nonpartisan identification and work with individuals in each events, for both strategic or private causes. The most effective instance of that: Invoice Gates. The opposite is to interact instantly with partisan politics, however with a stage of discretion, just like the Koch brothers or George Soros.
Musk falls into his personal class, working in a extremely partisan vogue however with just about no discretion. He’s displaying “a sort of gleeful embrace of partisanship”, Soskis stated, embodying a method of politics that feels just like Trump.
“That feels uncommon for the wealthiest people – the entire eschewal of discretion as a mode of political engagement,” Soskis stated. “That appears new.”
A plan to intestine regulators
If Trump and Musk sometimes appear to be an odd pair on paper – Trump has threatened to take away an electrical car tax credit score, whereas Musk is CEO of maybe the world’s most well-known EV firm – one level of alignment is a vehement dislike for regulators. Musk’s longstanding battles with authorities places of work just like the Environmental Safety Company and Federal Aviation Administration may shift in his favor underneath a Trump administration that’s prone to drastically reduce their assets and weaken their authority.
“I believe on some stage that that is only a pocketbook concern for him, that he additionally needs decrease taxes,” Noble, the previous FEC counsel, stated. “He needs to have his corporations free of security laws.”
Over the previous a number of years Musk has confronted investigations, fines and delays over public security considerations on a spread of his tasks. The FAA alleged final month that Musk’s SpaceX broke launch security protocols, and over time has grounded the corporate a number of instances for violating laws. California officers final week cited Musk’s politics and falsehoods as they voted towards a SpaceX plan to conduct launches within the state. Musk sued in response. The EPA has additionally launched investigations into SpaceX for complaints that it’s dumping unsafe quantities of wastewater into the ecosystem, whereas the FDA has cited Musk’s Neuralink mind implant firm for animal welfare points.
Tesla’s makes an attempt at growing absolutely autonomous vehicles have additionally come underneath scrutiny, presenting problems for a corporation that has staked its future on the power to supply a self-driving robotaxi. Tesla is going through extra probes from federal prosecutors and the Securities and Change Fee over its self-driving automotive claims, and earlier this 12 months got here underneath investigation from the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration associated to a recall of its autopilot operate.
These fixed fights with the total alphabet of regulatory businesses has coincided with Musk making quite a few public statements in favor of deregulation, in addition to calling for a full-scale audit of the federal authorities. That concept has discovered buy with Trump, who introduced in September that he would launch a Musk-led authorities effectivity fee that will audit federal businesses for locations to chop. Musk needs to name it the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or Doge, invoking considered one of his favourite memes, an expressive shiba inu.
Though the plan is obscure on particulars and fails to deal with the apparent battle of curiosity in Musk auditing the regulators that oversee his corporations, each Trump and Musk have repeatedly introduced up the thought of Musk holding some function in a possible Trump administration. Throughout an look on Fox Information earlier this week, Trump stated he would create a brand new place known as “secretary of cost-cutting” and appoint Musk.
“He’s dying to do that,” Trump stated.
Musk’s Maga help goes past enterprise
Musk’s public rightward shift is an extension of years of allying himself with proper wing leaders all over the world. In recent times, Musk has cozied as much as nationalist and nativist politicians together with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and India’s Narendra Modi.
A few of these relationships have seemed to be in service of Musk’s enterprise pursuits. He has solid a friendship with Argentina’s anti-regulation, far-right president Javier Milei, who he introduced on a private tour of Tesla’s Texas headquarters and repeatedly endorsed on X. Argentina, in the meantime, has a few of the world’s largest reserves of lithium, a key mineral utilized in electrical car batteries and one which Musk has beforehand demanded be processed in rising portions.
Musk’s enterprise empire is in danger when his relationships with governments bitter, as evidenced throughout his current battle with Brazilian authorities that resulted in a decide banning entry to X within the nation. Musk finally capitulated to adjust to native legal guidelines.
However Musk’s promotion of far-right beliefs and help for Trump have additionally taken on a private dimension that goes past enterprise calculations. Musk’s rhetoric on X has fixated on conservative grievances and he has amplified racist and antisemitic narratives by means of his tweets. Anti-immigration and anti-trans views have develop into a frequent speaking level.
One in all his 12 youngsters is a trans lady, and Musk claims he was “tricked into” signing off on her medical therapy and that he “misplaced” his baby within the course of. He has since vowed to defeat what he calls the “woke thoughts virus”.
This more and more overt radicalization of Musk’s social and political opinions seems unlikely to abate following the marketing campaign, leaving questions of how he could affect the nation’s politics when the election ends no matter its consequence.
After the January 6 revolt, Twitter, underneath its earlier possession, completely suspended Trump’s account “because of the danger of additional incitement of violence”. Beneath Musk, the tweets that obtained Trump banned appear quaint – and Trump is now again on the platform, as are a number of frequent superspreaders of election lies.
An enormous check awaits Musk if Trump loses, one thing he joked would land him in both authorized or bodily hassle with Democrats: Will he settle for a loss? Or would he use X to maintain spreading conspiracies he’s already promoted – that mail ballots are “too dangerous” or that noncitizens are swaying US elections, two of Trump’s pet election points.
X, underneath Musk, “is constructing now, as we communicate, one other contemporary stolen election narrative, and everyone knows what the results could possibly be”, Hood stated.
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