“A star is born, Elon,” Donald Trump said Wednesday morning in a long shout-out to his biggest donors as he declared victory in the US presidential election.
Trump’s victory heralds a new era for Musk – already the world’s richest man with a $260 billion fortune – and the president-elect’s most influential political and business adviser. His gamble on the US election paid off, as he was scheduled to become one of them.
Mr. Musk’s promised role as head of the new Department of Government Efficiency will give the billionaire broad powers to recommend significant cuts to what Mr. Musk considers a “huge federal bureaucracy.” . . It’s a big step backwards for America. ”
Musk also supports deregulation and influences U.S. policy regarding artificial intelligence, space exploration, and electric vehicles (all areas in which he has a personal stake through his leadership of xAI, SpaceX, and Tesla). I vowed to use my power.
“He’s a character, he’s a special person, he’s a super genius,” President Trump said of Musk on Wednesday. “We have to protect our geniuses. We don’t have that many geniuses.”
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Earlier in the evening, Musk posted a Photoshopped photo of himself carrying a sink into the Oval Office, which he acquired from X Company shortly before his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in October 2022. It’s a quirky reference to a similar photo he tweeted when he joined the company.
Another photo from Tuesday showed her huddled and chatting with Trump during an election night party at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida. This is what the future will look like 🔥 (fire emoji),” the caption read.
Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist” who previously said he voted for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, has moved sharply to the right in recent years. He aligned himself with the Trump campaign on issues such as immigration, regulation, distaste for mainstream media and what he called “woke” politics.
Musk publicly supported Trump hours after he survived the July 13 assassination attempt and has steadily poured time and resources into his re-election bid.
He donated more than $100 million to the pro-Republican America Pac, hosted town halls in key states such as Pennsylvania, and gave $1 million a day to voters who signed free speech petitions. . On election day, he bused Amish voters who could not drive themselves to the polls.
Mr. Musk has already reaped huge profits from that investment. Trump’s victory added billions of dollars to his wealth, as Tesla stock rose nearly 12% on Wednesday morning.
In the months leading up to the vote, Musk wielded his megaphone “X” as its owner and most popular account with more than 200 million followers. He flooded the platform with pro-Trump messages, claims about election 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, averaging more than 100 posts a day in the month leading up to the vote, and has been viewed about 955 million times, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. Recorded.
“My philosophy is to play to win and not do half-assed,” Musk said in an interview with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night.
Critics claim that Musk has injected bias into the platform’s algorithms, amplifying far-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories with little or no evidence, while simultaneously curtailing its moderation capabilities and fact-checking. There is.
Some have warned that Musk became one of the biggest proponents of election misinformation and conspiracies in the pre-election period, including claims of possible voter fraud. An analysis by fact-checking organization PolitiFact of 450 X posts posted by Musk in the first two weeks of October found that a large number of Incorrect information was discovered.
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But Mr. Musk’s campaign has drawn praise from Mr. Trump’s aides and liberal tech allies, who argue that Mr. Musk’s unusual intervention has strengthened the voice of the Republican Party and brought transparency to politics. are.
“I don’t think this race would have even been close if Elon Musk hadn’t shown people what he’s doing with X and what’s going on,” Donald Trump Jr. said on Tuesday’s podcast. spoke.
“The turning point was Elon buying Twitter,” Sean Maguire, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and a supporter of Mr Musk and a supporter of Mr Trump, told X. I wrote.
Secretary X will bring Silicon Valley allies to the White House, including tech investor and podcaster David Sachs and Palmer Lackey, co-founder of defense technology startup Anduril, who have already committed. Maybe. “It’s very important that we open up the Pentagon/Intel to entrepreneurial companies like yours,” Musk replied to Luckey on X, referring to the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies.
Investors are also betting that Musk’s own companies will benefit. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said that even if EV subsidies were repealed by President Trump (a known technology skeptic), “Tesla has unparalleled scale and reach in the EV industry. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla an unrealistic competitive advantage.” -Subsidy environment”.
Even before the election results were known, Musk had vowed to play an active role in American politics for years to come. Musk pledged to continue funding America Pac no matter the outcome during a livestreamed Q&A as he flew from Texas to watch the results with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. did.
Director X said the lobbying group “aims to be heavily involved in the midterm elections” in 2026 and is trying to influence elections at the district attorney and judicial level across the country.
“We need to do something to counter the damage that (George) Soros has done to the American system,” said Musk, a billionaire investor who is a prominent supporter of liberal and progressive causes. He spoke with reference to. “We need prosecutors to protect the people of our cities. It’s absolutely insane that so many city attorney offices don’t prosecute crimes.”
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In a livestream, Musk spoke about his role leading the controversial Office of Government Efficiency (which he nicknamed Doge after the meme token coin he promotes on X) during the second Trump administration. The plan became concrete. Tesla’s chief executive said he wants to reduce the “vast federal bureaucracy that is holding us back so much.”
“We’re going to do a comprehensive review of all government agencies. . . . When multiple agencies actually have overlapping portfolios, there’s a lot of overlapping responsibilities,” Musk said. Ta. “We have a lot of people working in government, so we just need to move them to 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 salaries for two years while they look for new jobs. He also said he wants to impose term limits on bureaucrats and significantly roll back a wide range of rules.
“We still want regulation, but it’s just necessary. I liken it to referees on the field. We don’t want zero referees, but we want more referees than players. I don’t want too much either,” he said. “That’s strange.”
Additional reporting by Christina Criddle in San Francisco
