In 2024, Elon Musk donated over $100 million to the Donald Trump presidential campaign. It turned his freshly acquired social media platform X (known as Twitter before Musk purchased it) into an unsubstantiated interactive online advertisement for Donald Trump’s presidency.
With Trump winning the election, Musk has emerged as one of the presidential election’s biggest winners.
Elon Musk’s Involvement in Trump’s Campaign
Musk (the world’s wealthiest man) was the only Fortune 100 CEO to publicly endorse a presidential candidate, with even peers such as Jeff Bezos notably avoiding publishing endorsements or congratulations until after the election.
Conversely, Musk endorsed Trump moments after the July assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally. Musk used the highly-publicized event to galvanize X users and focus as much attention as possible on his and the Trump campaign, an unequivocally successful effort. It was so successful, that in the wake of the unexpected election results, many wonder if a new age of politics, one more overtly entrenched in the digital age, has begun.
In the campaign’s final weeks, Musk hosted town halls in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, awarding swing-state voters $1 million checks. Rubbing shoulders with other wealthy donors at Mar-a-Lago as Trump rode a red wave to success, Musk tweeted a photo of a SpaceX rocket launching: “The future is gonna be fantastic.”
Musk’s Investments Pay Off
But how exactly will Musk’s election wager pay off? Trump made clear in his victory speech that Musk will have an ally in the White House. “A star is born,” Trump said of the tech billionaire.
The combined power of Trump’s approval and his fundamental lack of understanding of Musk’s businesses could allow Musk significant sway. Trump could even allow Musk to control government policy and the federal agencies overseeing his constellation of six companies, from Tesla to SpaceX, awarded $15.4 billion in federal government contracts over the past decade.
“It’s common for presidents to tap business leaders for prominent roles in their administrations, but Musk’s reach could be unprecedented,” said Dan Schnur, who teaches strategic political communications at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley.
“If Donald Trump were Willy Wonka, Elon Musk just won all five golden tickets,” said Schnur. “Trump not only respects him, not only does he revere him, but Trump feels like he owes him. Add that up, and it’s hard to imagine Musk writing a wish list that Trump won’t rubber stamp.”
The Future of Musk and Trump’s Partnership
Musk may have a significant role in Trump’s White House. Trump has already pledged to give Musk an official role in his administration, cutting government spending, which he calls the “Secretary of Cost Cutting.” Musk joked that he would run a “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, referring to the cryptocurrency he so roundly champions.
Musk could also influence the selection of the heads of the regulatory agencies that oversee his companies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Gita Johar, a professor at Columbia Business School in New York, said she has not seen such an “explicit quid pro quo” before. “I think it could be a very cozy arrangement that benefits Musk,” Johar said.
Musk potentially being handed the power to shape agencies that he has criticized in the past may be problematic, according to Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
“It’s one thing to include business leaders in an advisory committee,” Clark said. “But the chair of any kind of efficiency commission should put the public’s interest first. That would be impossible for Elon Musk to do while Elon Musk has so many contentious interactions with federal government agencies.”
