“A star is born.” With these words, Donald Trump referred to Elon Musk this Wednesday in his first speech after his victory in the elections in the United States. The future president was full of praise for the owner of Tesla, X and Space He became a person of maximum trust and could end up playing an important role during his next term.
Elon Musk He was one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters during the election campaign.. In recent weeks, he has participated in several meetings organized by the future American president. Among them, the one he offered on October 5 in Pennsylvania, where he survived an assassination attempt in July and one of the key states in these elections.
But his support was not limited to participation in public events. According to the American press, the richest man in the world invested at least 119 million dollars (110.59 million euros) in the electoral campaign of the Republican leader through what is called a political action committee (PAC).
And it is also believed that Elon Musk has become one of the people whose opinion Donald Trump takes into account the most. In fact, we consider thatOr proximity to the republican leader influenced, among other decisions, the election of JD Vance as vice president for this second stage at the White House.
The doubt now lies in how involved Musk will be in Trump’s next term, beyond the good harmony that exists between the two. The Republican candidate himself played despite this possibility during his electoral campaign. He also ruled out the idea of him being part of his government, which proposed him as “spending reduction” secretary.
In this regard, Brian Hughes, Trump advisor, stressed that the intention is put Musk at the head of a new commission on “government effectiveness”“. At a rally organized in New York on October 27, the richest man in the world assured that it was possible to reduce the federal budget by at least 2,000 billion dollars (1,860 billion euros).
To get actively involved in the new Administration, Musk won’t be the first businessman to be part of a Trump administration. During the previous mandate, people with professional backgrounds closely linked to the company such as Rex Tillero, former executive director of Exxon Mobil, or Linda McMahon, former executive director of World Wrestling Entertainment, were already part of his team.
Major beneficiary
Regardless of what ultimately happens with Musk in the political sphere, analysts and markets believe that The richest man in the world is one of the “big beneficiaries” of the electoral victory by Donald Trump. In fact, Tesla shares rose more than 10% on Wednesday, even though Trump isn’t exactly an advocate for electric vehicles.
“Those who would benefit the most from a Trump victory would be Tesla and Musk,” they say at Wedbush, an American company specializing in technology companies. Thus, he emphasizes that even if the presidency of the Republican candidate will be generally negative for the zero-emission vehicle sectorSince it is likely that rebates and tax incentives will be removed, Elon Musk’s company would also benefit.
These assumptions are based on Tesla’s enormous scale and reach in the marketwhich linked to an environment without aid for electric cars and probably to higher Chinese prices, would lead the American manufacturer to dominate sales in the country.
But Tesla will also benefit from Trump’s “aversion” to regulation, particularly in the technology environment. For example, With the new government, the development of autonomous driving could be acceleratedan activity on which Tesla is banking decisively, as demonstrated by the recent presentation of its Cybercab robotaxi.
SpaceX could also benefit from less strict regulations. Musk has publicly complained about the excessive regulation and scrutiny his space business is subject to, despite NASA being one of his major clients. This is why it decided to move a large part of its operations from California to Texas.
Another front on which the two billionaires maintaining a common position against excessive regulation is that linked to cryptocurrencies. In fact, these digital assets greeted Trump’s victory with sharp increases and Bitcoin is hitting all-time highs.
His proximity to Trump could also be useful to Musk in terms of impose their position on artificial intelligence (AI) in the middle of the debate world on its regulation. In addition, we must not forget that Musk owns xAI and is in confrontation with OpenAI, the company that is currently leading the development of generative AI and in the origins of which the businessman was involved.
“Musk clearly has a close relationship with Trump and any comments he makes will have great influence,” said Matt Mittelsteadt, a researcher at George Mason University, speaking to Wired. Additionally, he warns that “he could hold some sort of position in a possible Trump administration, and their views could be implemented in policies“.
Points of disagreement
However, there exists Other aspects on which the two businessmen do not agree so much and in which we will have to wait to see if Elon Musk has the ability to bring Donald Trump’s positions closer to his own. In addition to everything related to electric vehicles, they also occupy differentiated positions in the energy sector.
Musk is a big advocate of carbon-free energy and we shouldn’t forget that Tesla is a major supplier of solar systems and batteries. However, Trump has pledged to kill the offshore wind industry and cancel all unspent funds under Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Finally, We must not forget that Musk owns X (the old Twitter)a social network which has been put under the spotlight because it is suspected of amplifying certain messages to the detriment of others. And in a less regulated environment, Musk would have more freedom in running his operations.
“You are the media now”Musk wrote this Wednesday in X after pointing out that on election day in the United States, records were broken in terms of use of the social network by its users.
You are the media now
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2024
Musk accompanied Trump to his Mar-a-Lago (Florida) mansion on election night. A final example of the support that the richest man in the world gave to the future President of the United States in this campaign, who in turn did not hide his gratitude.
“He’s a super genius. We must protect our geniuses. We don’t have many“That’s how Trump defined someone who, if things don’t go wrong, will probably be one of his trusted people for the next four years.