Billionaire company X owner Elon Musk said his social media platform must remain “politically neutral” in how it engages with both the left and the right. But as a private citizen, Musk has his own views, and he shares them widely.
Musk is now using his posts, influence and money to campaign for Trump’s election.
And perhaps never was his enthusiastic support for the Republican nominee better demonstrated than when Musk, a 53-year-old father of 12, happily jumped on stage behind Trump as the candidate spoke at a rally in New York City. Butler, Pennsylvaniaearlier this month.
“You see, I’m not just a MAGA, I’m a dark MAGA,” Musk joked as he tipped his black “Make America Great Again” hat to a crowd of cheering people.
Musk, the richest man in the world with a net worth of $242 billion, according to Forbes, pledged to donate 1 million dollars daily The president sent a message to voters for his signature on a political action committee petition supporting the Constitution, a pledge that experts say raises legal questions.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
“While some of the other things Musk has been doing may have been of vague legality, this is clearly illegal,” Rick Hasen, a political science professor at UCLA School of Law, wrote on the Election Law Blog about the $1 million-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 the US PAC since he founded it in May, including $30 million in September alone, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Musk ventures into politics
Musk has not always been 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 research. A group that tracks 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 had rarely tweeted about President Biden or Trump before. acquisition X, formerly Twitter, in October 2022, posts more about his popular electric car company, Tesla.
But in 2023 and 2024, his posts began mentioning Trump and Biden much more frequently, to the point that in recent months, he often wrote more posts mentioning one or the other than he wrote about Tesla. In July, the newspaper recorded 315 Musk tweets mentioning Trump or Biden, and 129 tweets mentioning Tesla.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Musk’s increasing political involvement.
“I have no response and no comment on that at this moment,” Jean-Pierre told reporters last Monday.
X and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
How Musk is using Twitter to promote Trump — and misinformation
Musk’s public messaging may help Trump more than his wealth.
When Musk took over Twitter, he said he did so because it fell short of being a “free speech platform.”
Musk has since fired teams tasked with combating deceptive content and, in the name of free speech, reinstated accounts that had been banned, such as those of right-wing conspiracy theorists. Alex Jones.
Not only is Musk using his platform to push for an “absolutely decisive victory” for Trump, he is echoing the misinformation being promoted by Trump and some Republicans.
In an appearance at a Trump campaign event in Pennsylvania last Thursday, Musk repeated false claims that raise doubts about the integrity of Dominion’s voting machines. Spreading misinformation 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 fraud,” Musk told the crowd. “Statistically speaking, there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly improbable. There’s always this question, for example, about the Dominion voting machines. It’s strange, I think, that they’ve been used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County.” (In Arizona) but not in a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a coincidence?”
In September, Musk posted an obviously fake AI photo showing a woman who was supposed to be Harris wearing a red communist uniform, holding a hammer. “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one,” Musk wrote. “Can you believe she’s wearing this outfit?” The post appears to violate his company’s rule about manipulated content.
after An apparent second assassination attempt In a tweet at 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 heavily criticized in November 2023 for Contact Anti-Semitic post on ‘X’ is the ‘actual truth’, prompting major advertisers like Coca-Cola and Disney to Withdraw advertising spending From the platform. X’s original post claimed that Jews “were pushing the exact kind of polemical hatred against white people that they claim they 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 California avoided him.
The California State Commission recently rejected a Space Force effort to increase SpaceX rocket launches along the state’s central coasts, citing environmental concerns. SpaceX has sued California regulators over the decision, claiming it was politically motivated.
Musk also criticized the level of regulation and taxation in California Announce In July, he announced he was moving X and SpaceX to Texas in response to a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom that prohibits school districts from passing policies that require schools to notify parents of their children’s gender identity or gender identity.
But there may also be a more practical reason for Musk’s move to Texas: The Lone Star State has no corporate income tax, while California has a business tax of 8.84%, one of the highest rates in the country.
Will Musk’s policy drive away Tesla car buyers?
Meanwhile, experts say Musk’s promotion of Trump and his policies may turn away some potential Tesla buyers. In the second quarter, Tesla vehicle sales fell approximately 5% compared to the previous year.
“Clearly Musk doubling down on Trump’s support is not a huge positive compared to Tesla sales,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CBS News. “It’s on the edges, but it’s definitely had an impact.”
That’s because the largest group of potential electric vehicle buyers are Democrats, with nearly half of them saying they are likely to buy an electric vehicle, according to Pew Research Center data. But only about 1 in 10 Republicans consider themselves likely to pay for an electric car.
Tesla, which was one of the few options for electric cars when it began production in 2008, now faces significant competition from major automakers such as Ford, Chevrolet and Volkswagen. This gives people who are uncomfortable with Musk’s policy but want a green car the option to shop elsewhere.
Musk may have been pushed toward Trump in part because of the Biden administration’s disdain for Tesla vehicles when it first rolled out tax incentives for electric vehicles. Its famous model Y Eligible for a $7,500 tax credit Last year after the IRS expanded its vehicle classifications.
“The Biden administration has deemed Musk irrelevant — he has been left out of the conversation,” Ives added.
In 2023, Musk struck a deal with the White House to open up Tesla vehicle fees to other automakers, in exchange for access to federal funds. Tesla won $17 million in grants for electric vehicle charging from the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Mr. Biden often touts. But earlier this year, Musk fired his team from Supercharger, upending and undermining the company’s charging strategy.
How will Musk benefit from a Trump presidency?
Tesla investors are concerned about Musk’s political involvement because they want to see him more focused on his business, Ives said. Trump He told the Economic Club of New York In a recent speech, he said he plans to appoint Musk to lead a new Government Efficiency Commission that will audit the “entire” federal government. Ives has doubts about how feasible this will be. “Unless he recreates a version of artificial intelligence for himself, I don’t see how that works,” Ives said of Musk’s ability to take a government job in addition to his leadership of Tesla and SpaceX, in addition to roles in other companies such as Neuralink and The Boring Company.
Ives was also suggesting that appointing Musk to a government position could create a serious conflict of interest, given Musk’s extensive business empire.
Trump, who cut the corporate tax rate to 21% from the previous 35% through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, is now vowing to lower the rate to 15%, which could benefit Musk’s business empire. But changing the tax code would require approval from Congress.
Both Trump and Musk are fighting transgender issues
Trump has taken transgender issues as a major theme of his campaign, vowing to withhold federal funding from schools that teach transgender issues, and insisting that the sexes be kept separate at birth in sports.
Musk has been vocal about his feelings on transgender issues as well. Reuters reported in 2022 that Musk donated millions of dollars to a group that runs anti-trans ads.
Musk has come under fire for calling his transgender child “dead.” Wilson changed several years ago, when she was 16, and spoke out on social media and condemned her father’s comments and behavior. Musk told far-right online personality Jordan Peterson that Wilson’s transition made him opposed to gender-affirming treatments.
Alan Scherter
She contributed to this report.