'It's quid pro quo' Now Musk will expect payback - big time
The Guardian|November 11, 2024
Donald Trump owes his decisive 2024 presidential victory in no small part to the enthusiastic support of the world's richest man.
Mack DeGeurin
'It's quid pro quo' Now Musk will expect payback - big time

In the months leading up to the election, Elon Musk put his full weight behind the Maga movement, backed Trump on podcasts and used his influence over X to shape political discourse. Musk's America political action committee (Pac) injected nearly $120m (£92m) into the campaign.

Now Trump is in a position to return the favour. Speaking to reporters last month, he said he would appoint Musk as "secretary of cost-cutting". Musk, for his part, has joked he would be interested in serving as head of the "Department of Government Efficiency" (Doge) with a stated goal of reducing government spending by $2tn.

Practically speaking, experts say those cost cuts could result in deregulation and policy changes that would directly impact Musk's universe of companies, particularly Tesla, SpaceX, X and Neuralink.

"We've seen lobbying efforts, we've seen Super Pacs, but this is a different level we've never seen before," said Gita Johar, a professor at Columbia Business School. "There will be some quid pro quo where he [Musk] will benefit." She added: "'Conflict of interest' seems rather quaint."

Tesla
Tesla is already reaping the benefits of a second Trump administration. On Wednesday, hours after the Associated Press called the presidential race for Trump, the electric vehicle company's stock shot up 13% to a 52-week high. By the end of the week, Tesla reached $1tn in market capitalisation, its highest valuation in two years. Musk's own fortune shot up $26bn.

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