WASHINGTON: Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has emerged as both a surrogate for Donald Trump and a lightning rod for the Republican’s campaign.
The CEO of electric carmaker Tesla, and Space X, which has set its sight on human colonies on Mars, and with a controlling interest in the social media platform X that was once known as Twitter, as well as a slew of tech and science companies, Musk has been out campaigning for and with Donald Trump.
In an unlikely partnership, the global warming sceptic and the prolific maker of electric cars have taken a shine to each other and Trump waxes eloquent on the technological accomplishments of Musk, especially his rockets, making hand gestures to show how his Starship booster rocket safely landed.
But in many of his campaign speeches, Trump has ridiculed the performance of electric cars, which provided the liftoff to Musk’s other enterprises, because President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have ensured tax breaks for those buying it as a way of fighting climate change.
Trump has announced that he would be appointing the 53-year-old South Africa-born entrepreneur as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he has proposed to reduce federal spending.
On Sunday at a campaign rally here, Musk said he would cut $2 trillion from the government’s $6.5 billion budget.
Democrats portray Musk as the stalking horse for billionaires’ take over of government and eviscerating its social programmes while adopting policies that would hit the middle and poorer classes hard.
Musk, who bought Twitter for about $45 billion in 2022 and renamed it X, allowed Trump who had been banned from it back on and loosened restrictions on postings asserting that it was in the cause of free speech.
Many protested and threatened to leave X, but as one of the biggest megaphones for both political propaganda and misinformation, it continues to host President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign, as well as many liberals and the Left.
Just as its ubiquity immunised X, Musk’s bet is that if Harris wins his government contracts would be difficult to unravel because they are deeply embedded in its programmes from space and defence to international aid and emergency preparedness. And, of course, in furthering its fight against climate change through e-vehicles and electricity storage systems.
Musk is donating $200 million to a political action committee, America PAC, that he has set up to help Trump’s victory, using a legal loophole that permits it as long as there is no direct link to candidate Trump.
The committee, which has attracted contributions from other businesspeople, is organisating house-to-house campaigns, promoting voter registration, and running advertising for Trump and against Harris.
Agencies