How Elon Musk has become a powerful figure in US politics

Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX recently made history by catching a Starship rocket booster as it careened back to Earth, wants you to vote for Donald Trump for many reasons. That includes not just what Trump will do here on this planet, but also for what he’ll achieve that’s outside this world. “Vote for @real DonaldTrump,” Musk recently tweeted, “if you want humanity to be a spacefaring civilization”.

Back inside the Earth’s orbit, the CEO of Tesla and X, and one of the richest men in the world, makes an odd foil for Democrats. In a parallel universe, his work in commercial space flights, inventing the most advanced electric cars on the planet, advocacy for sustainable energy, and long record of voting “100 percent Dem until a few years ago” would seem make him a hero of the left. Instead, Musk has taken on the role of comic book supervillain whose full-throated support for Trump has turned him into a pariah among progressives.

Musk purports to be baffled by the backlash, since he insists that nothing that he represents is particularly controversial. He considers himself a political “moderate” who, in backing Trump, is simply standing up for common-sense, middle-of-the-road positions: belief in free speech, deference to the US Constitution, and the right of countries to control their borders. “I’ve been told at times that they are like right-wing values,” Musk said. “These are the fundamental values that made America what it is today.”

Of course, Musk knows better. In between burning the midnight oil at his multiple corporate enterprises, Musk finds the time to tweet dozens of times a day, often trolling critics, heralding Trump, and only rarely apologising for outlandish, crass, conspiracy-laden and sometimes even false posts. Musk has acknowledged that some of his tweets are “extremely dumb”, though he refuses to apply a filter.

In describing Musk, one journalist fretted what could happen when “the world’s richest man runs a communications platform in a truly vengeful, dictatorial way … to promote extreme right-wing agendas and to punish what he calls brain-poisoned liberals”.

Musk’s power lies in his willingness to say just about anything — backstopped by his ownership of part of the internet’s de facto public square. In a now-deleted tweet, Musk pondered sarcastically that “no one is trying to assassinate” Kamala Harris or Joe Biden. Outside of X, Musk admits he’s been “trashing Kamala nonstop” and that, if Harris wins, he’s “fucked”.

Throwing money and power around

Musk is a Maga convert. In 2022, the same year that he bought Twitter and reinstated Trump’s privileges, Musk said that it was “time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset”. Pulling no punches, Trump once called Musk “another bullshit artist”.

Musk claims to have supported Democrats in recent elections, including Joe Biden in 2020. In July of this year, however, Musk announced that he was endorsing Trump, in large part because of how the former president’s reacted after an assassination attempt on his life. “This is a man who has courage under fire!” Musk said.

Musk represents a new crop of politically charged billionaires who aren’t content to stay on their mega-yachts, and instead want to throw their money — and power — around in support of conservative causes.

Yet unlike others to whom he’s often compared — such as Bill Ackman, the CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square, and Peter Thiel, co-creator of PayPal — no one has gone “all in” for Trump like Musk.

Earlier this month, Musk invested US$75 million (£57.8 million) of his own money to create the pro-Trump America Political Action Committee (Pac). (A Pac raises money for a political candidate.) The Pac has offered registered voters in Pennsylvania US$100 (and the chance to win US$1 million) if they sign a petition “in support of free speech and the right to bear arms”.

While critics have called the move illegal, pointing to federal election law that bars paying “or offer[ing] to pay … for registration to vote or for voting”. Musk insists there’s a loophole: he isn’t technically tying his giveaways to voting – and the US Justice Department has said this could violate federal electoral law.

Musk has changed his short-term residency to mobilise support for Trump. As of October, Musk has hunkered down in Pennsylvania, the swing state he calls the “linchpin” in the 2024 US election, where his campaigning has included giving a surprise speech for Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – where there was previously an assassination attempt on Trump.

Musk has painted doomsday scenarios of what could happen if the election doesn’t turn out how he likes. In a just-released interview with former Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson, Musk surmised that “if Trump doesn’t win this election, it’s the last election we’re going to have”. The comment comes as Republicans have pilloried Democrats’ dialled-up rhetoric that democracy is “at stake” in 2024.

Beyond the election, there’s more than speculation that Musk could be tapped for a role in a potential Trump 2.0 administration. He’s openly campaigned to serve as the new head of a department for government efficiency. Trump has already announced that, if elected, Musk will direct a task force to conduct a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and offer “recommendations for drastic reforms”.

True to form, Musk promises that his public service won’t stop at the edge of Earth’s outer orbit. “Washington DC has become an ever-increasing ocean of brake pedals stopping progress,” he says. “Let’s change those brake pedals to accelerators, so we can get great things done in America and become a spacefaring civilization!” One thing’s for sure: Musk’s politics are, quite literally, out of this world.

Thomas Gift does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.