Elon Musk's bet on Donald Trump is paying off

“A star is born: Elon,” said Donald Trump in a long greeting to his biggest donor as he claimed victory in the US presidential election campaign on Wednesday morning.

Trump's impending victory heralds a new era for Musk – already the world's richest person with a fortune of $260 billion – whose bet on a high-profile US election has paid off as he becomes one of the country's most influential political and business advisers will become president.

Musk's promised role as head of a new government efficiency department will give the billionaire broad powers to recommend deep cuts to what he considers a “vast federal bureaucracy.” . . is holding America back in a big way.”

Musk has also vowed to advocate for deregulation and gain influence over U.S. policy in artificial intelligence, space exploration and electric vehicles – all sectors in which he has a personal stake through his leadership of xAI, SpaceX and Tesla.

“He’s a character, he’s a special guy, he’s a super genius,” Trump said of Musk on Wednesday. “We have to protect our geniuses, we don’t have that many of them.”

Earlier in the evening, Musk posted a photo of himself carrying a sink into the Oval Office, an unusual nod to a similar photo he tweeted as he entered X shortly before he took to the social media platform in October 2022 acquired for $44 billion.

Another image from Tuesday showed him talking to Trump and podcaster Joe Rogan at an election night party at Mar-a-Lago in Florida with the caption: “The future will be like this 🔥 (fire emoji).”

Musk – a self-described “free speech absolutist” who said he previously voted for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – has moved sharply to the right in recent years. He agreed with Trump's campaign on issues such as immigration and regulation, dislike of the mainstream media and what he called “woke” politics.

Musk publicly endorsed Trump just hours after he survived an assassination attempt on July 13 and has poured increasing time and resources into his re-election.

He donated more than $100 million to the pro-Republican America Pac, held town halls in key states like Pennsylvania and gave away $1 million a day to voters who signed his free speech petition. On election day, he bussed Amish voters who were unable to drive to polling stations.

Musk made a huge return on that investment – by Trump's victory and by increasing his net worth by billions, as Tesla shares rose nearly 13 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday.

In the months leading up to the vote, Musk wielded his own megaphone – X – as its owner and the most popular account with more than 200 million followers. He flooded the platform with pro-Trump messages, allegations of voter fraud and warnings that Kamala Harris would destroy America if she won the White House.

He tweeted nearly 200 times in 24 hours on Tuesday, drawing around 955 million views, after averaging more than 100 posts a day in the month before the vote, according to a Financial Times analysis.

During an interview with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night, Musk said, “My philosophy is that you play to win, not by half measures.”

Critics have argued that Musk has injected bias into the platform's algorithms and amplified far-right narratives and conspiracy theories with little or no evidence, while limiting its moderation abilities and fact-checking.

Some have warned that Musk became one of the biggest purveyors of election misinformation and conspiracies in the run-up to the election, such as spreading claims about possible voter fraud. An analysis by fact-checking group PolitiFact of 450 of Musk's X-posts in the first two weeks of October found a wealth of misinformation that received nearly 679 million views and more than 5.3 million likes.

But Musk's campaign has won praise from Trump's inner circle and his libertarian tech allies, who argue that his extraordinary intervention has strengthened Republican votes and brought transparency to politics.

In a podcast on Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. said: “I don't think this race would be even close if Elon Musk hadn't done X and shown people what was going on.”

Shaun Maguire, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and a regular supporter of Musk and Trump, wrote on X: “The tipping point was Elon buying Twitter.”

The Musk responded to Luckey

Investors are also betting that Musk's own companies will benefit. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said that even if Trump – a well-known skeptic of the technology – were to withdraw electric vehicle subsidies: “Tesla has the scale and scope that is unparalleled in the electric vehicle industry, and that dynamic could put Musk and Tesla in provide a clear competitive advantage in another case.” -Subsidy environment”.

Even before the election results were announced, Musk made it clear that he would play an active role in US politics in the coming years. During a livestreamed question-and-answer session as he flew from Texas on a private jet to watch the results with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Musk pledged to support his America Pac regardless of the outcome continue to finance.

The boss of the

“Something must be done to counteract the damage that (George) Soros has inflicted on the American system,” Musk said, referring to the billionaire financier who is a prominent supporter of liberal and progressive causes. “We need DAs to protect the citizens of their cities. It’s just crazy that we have so many district attorney’s offices that don’t prosecute crimes.”

In the livestream, Musk fleshed out plans for a role as head of a controversial government efficiency department — which he called “Doge” in reference to the meme token coin he promotes on X — in a second Trump administration. The Tesla boss said he wanted to dismantle a “huge federal bureaucracy that is largely holding America back.”

“We will conduct a comprehensive review of all government agencies. . . “There's a lot of duplication of responsibilities when multiple agencies actually have overlapping portfolios,” Musk said. “There are a lot of people who work for the government and we just need to move them into more productive roles in the private sector.”

Musk said the cuts would be done in a “humane way” and floated the idea of ​​paying government workers for two years while they look for new jobs. He also said he would like to see term limits for bureaucrats and a significant reduction in a wide range of rules.

“We still want regulations, they just have to be necessary. I liken it to referees on a playing field. “You don’t want to have no referees, but you also don’t want to have more referees than players,” he said. “This is crazy.”

Additional reporting by Cristina Criddle in San Francisco