Billionaire and ‘X’ owner Elon Musk has said his social media platform must remain “politically neutral” in how it treats both the left and the right. But as a private citizen, Musk has his own opinions and he shares them widely.
Musk is now using his X-rated publications, his influence and his money to get Trump elected.
His enthusiastic support for the Republican nominee was perhaps no better illustrated than when Musk, 53, a father of 12, happily jumped on stage behind Trump as the candidate spoke at a rally in Washington. Butler, Pennsylvaniaearlier this month.
“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA,” Musk joked while showing off his black “Make America Great Again” hat to a cheering crowd.
Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of $242 billion, according to Forbes, has pledged to give 1 million dollars per day voters for signing his political action committee’s petition in support of the Constitution, a pledge that experts say raises legal questions.
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“Even if some of the other things Musk was doing were murky legal, this one is clearly illegal,” Rick Hasen, a political science professor at UCLA Law School, wrote on the Election Law blog. about the million dollar a day giveaway.
He is also donating an undisclosed amount of money through the political action committee, America PAC, which he formed this summer to support Trump. Musk has contributed about $75 million to his America PAC since it was founded in May, including $30 million in September alone, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Musk enters politics
Musk has not always been so overtly political, although he expressed support for former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. He also made financial contributions to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign, according to data from Open Secrets, a nonpartisan study. group that follows money in politics.
In recent years, Musk’s disdain for Democratic politics has been no secret.
The Wall Street Journal analyzed Musk’s tweets and found that he rarely tweeted about President Biden or Trump before. acquire X, formerly Twitter, in October 2022, posting much more about its popular electric vehicle company, Tesla.
But in 2023 and 2024, his posts began mentioning Trump and Biden much more frequently, to the point where he has, in recent months, often written more posts mentioning one or the other than Tesla. In July, the Journal recorded 315 tweets from Musk mentioning Trump or Biden, and 129 mentioning Tesla.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Musk’s increased political involvement.
“I have no answer, no comment on this subject at the moment,” Jean-Pierre told reporters last Monday.
X and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
How Musk uses Twitter to promote Trump – and misinformation
Musk’s public messages could help Trump even more than his wealth.
When Musk took over Twitter, he said he did so because the network wasn’t up to the task of being a “platform for free speech.”
Musk has since fired teams tasked with combating misleading content and, in the name of free speech, reinstated banned accounts, like that of the right-wing conspiracy theorist. Alex Jones.
Not only is Musk using his platform to push for an “absolutely decisive victory” for Trump, but he is echoing the misinformation promoted by Trump and some Republicans.
During a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania last Thursday in support of Trump, Musk repeated debunked claims raising doubts about the integrity of Dominion voting machines. Spreading false information about Dominion cost Fox News a $787 million settlement in 2023.
“When you have mail-in ballots and no proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove cheating,” Musk told the crowd. “Statistically, there are some very strange things happening that are statistically incredibly improbable. There’s always this question of, say, Dominion voting machines. It’s strange, I think, that they were used in Philadelphia and the Maricopa County. [in Arizona] but not in many other places. Doesn’t that sound like quite a coincidence? »
In September, Musk posted a blatantly fake AI-generated image showing a woman purported to be Harris wearing a red communist uniform, holding a hammer. “Kamala swears to be a communist dictator from day one,” Musk wrote. “Can you believe she’s wearing this outfit?” The post appeared to violate his own company’s rule on manipulated content.
After the second apparent assassination attempt about Trump in September, Musk wrote on “X” that “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” with a raised eyebrow emoji. He deleted the post, later insisting his post was a “joke”.
Musk was also criticized in November 2023 for call an anti-Semitic post about “X” the “real truth”, prompting major advertisers such as Coca-Cola and Disney to draw from advertising expenses from the platform. X’s original post claimed that Jews “have pushed the exact type of dialectical hatred against white people that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
Musk has become increasingly vocal against Democratic politicians and their style of governance. He avoided California politics and was also rejected by California.
A California state commission recently rejected Space Force efforts to increase SpaceX rocket launches along the state’s central coasts, citing environmental concerns. SpaceX sued California regulators over the decision, saying it was politically motivated.
Musk also denounced the level of regulation and taxes in California, and announcement in July that it would move X and SpaceX to Texas in response to a law signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom that prohibits school districts from adopting policies requiring schools to inform parents of gender identity or the sexual identification of their children.
But there may also be a more pragmatic reason for Musk’s choice to settle in Texas: the Lone Star state imposes no corporate tax, while California imposes a business tax of 8.84 %, one of the highest in the country.
Are Musk’s policies turning buyers away from Tesla?
Meanwhile, Musk’s promotion of Trump and his policies could turn some potential buyers away from Tesla, experts say. In the second quarter, Tesla vehicle sales fell nearly 5% from a year earlier.
“Musk doubling down on his support for Trump is clearly not very positive in relation to Tesla sales,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CBS News. “It’s marginal, but it’s definitely had an impact.”
Indeed, the largest pool of potential electric vehicle buyers is Democrats, nearly half of whom say they are likely to buy an electric vehicle, according to Pew Research data. But only about 1 in 10 Republicans consider themselves likely to shell out for an electric vehicle.
And Tesla, one of the few electric vehicle choices when it began production in 2008, now faces stiff competition from major automakers such as Ford, Chevrolet and Volkswagen. This gives people who aren’t comfortable with Musk’s policies but want an eco-friendly vehicle the option to shop elsewhere.
Musk may have been pushed toward Trump in part because of the Biden administration’s rejection of Tesla vehicles during the first rollout of its electric vehicle tax incentives. Its popular Model Y eligible for the $7,500 tax credit last year, after the IRS expanded its vehicle classifications.
“The Biden administration essentially deemed Musk irrelevant — he was left out of the conversation,” Ives added.
In 2023, Musk reached a deal with the White House to open pricing for Tesla vehicles to other automakers, in exchange for the ability to access federal funds. Tesla won $17 million in electric vehicle charging grants thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law that Mr. Biden frequently touts. But earlier this year, Musk fired his Supercharger team, upending and undermining the company’s charging strategy.
How Musk would benefit from a Trump presidency
Tesla investors are concerned about Musk’s political involvement because they would like to see him focus more on his business, Ives said. Asset told the Economic Club of New York in a recent speech, he announced plans to appoint Musk to head a new government efficiency commission that would audit “the entire” federal government. “Unless he recreates an AI version of himself, I don’t see how that can be done,” Ives said of Musk’s ability to hold a government position in addition to his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX and X, as well as roles at other companies such as Neuralink and The Boring Company.
Ives also suggested that placing Musk in a government role could pose serious conflicts of interest, given Musk’s vast business empire.
Trump, who cut the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% with his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, is now pledging to cut the rate to 15%, which could benefit Musk’s business empire. Changing the tax code, however, would require Congressional approval.
Both Trump and Musk struggle with transgender issues
Trump has made transgender issues a central theme of his campaign, pledging to withhold federal funding from schools that teach transgender issues and insisting on separation of birth-assigned genders in sports.
Musk has also expressed his feelings on transgender issues. Reuters reported in 2022 that Musk donated millions of dollars to a group that runs anti-trans ads.
Musk was criticized for calling his transgender child “dead.” Wilson transitioned several years ago, at age 16, and spoke out on social media, condemning her father’s comments and behavior. Musk told far-right online personality Jordan Peterson that Wilson’s transition led him to oppose gender-affirming treatments.
Alain Sherter contributed to this report.
