The Elon Musk effect: How Donald Trump gained from billionaire’s support | US Election 2024

When Donald Trump declared his “magnificent victory” because the outcomes of the US presidential election trickled in, he reserved particular reward for one man who has helped to catapult him again into the nation’s prime job.

“A star is born, Elon,” he stated in a speech in West Palm Seaside, Florida, referring to his biggest ally within the race to turn out to be president: the billionaire proprietor of Tesla, SpaceX and X (previously Twitter), Elon Musk.

Musk has certainly performed an outsized position in Trump’s comeback, not solely pumping tens of millions of {dollars} into Trump’s marketing campaign but additionally serving as a coverage advisor and promoter, successfully turning his X social media platform right into a Make America Nice Once more (MAGA) mouthpiece.

“The future is gonna be fantastic,” Musk posted on X because it turned obvious that Trump could be returning to the White Home.

The future is gonna be incredible pic.twitter.com/I46tFsHxs3

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2024

The billionaire’s star may certainly rise excessive underneath Trump, who beforehand steered his ally may turn out to be “secretary of cost-cutting” in his cupboard. Consultants have warned that Musk, whose Area X already wields clout as a serious authorities defence contractor, may find yourself “regulating the regulators”.

Because the mud settles, right here’s every thing that you must learn about how the world’s richest man helped engineer one of many wildest political comebacks in historical past. How did Musk leverage his cash and affect to get Trump again on prime, and why?

How a lot did Musk donate to Trump’s marketing campaign?

To be clear, billionaires performed an even bigger position than ever in each the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns. Invoice Gates of Microsoft and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg each backed Vice President Kamala Harris. However it was Musk’s multi-faceted support of Trump that actually made the distinction.

Musk donated an estimated $132m to Trump and different Republicans within the run-up to the 2024 election, in accordance with the Federal Election Fee (FEC) final month in its last disclosures earlier than election day.

Two of the most important donations – $43.6m and $75m – went straight into the Trump marketing campaign machine, notably the America PAC (political motion committee) established by Musk himself.

Controversially, Musk launched a money giveaway in key swing states, providing registered voters who agreed to signal a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments of the US Structure, which respectively defend freedom of speech and the fitting to maintain and bear arms, the possibility to win $1m a day.

“We are going to be awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition, every day, from now until the election,” Musk stated at a marketing campaign occasion on October 19.

The transfer was challenged in a Pennsylvania courtroom after the US Justice Division warned the group might be breaking election legal guidelines, which forbid paying folks to register to vote. However, judges dominated on Monday that the operation may go forward after Musk’s attorneys argued that the winners have been vetted spokespeople and never randomly chosen.

Now Musk is being sued in a category motion go well with by voters who declare he satisfied them to signal the petition underneath false pretences that they’d an opportunity of successful the $1m. The go well with was filed on Tuesday by Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty, who additionally accused Musk of utilizing the giveaway to gather invaluable private knowledge and drive site visitors to X.

FEC filings additionally confirmed Musk gave $10m to the Senate Management Fund, a PAC with a remit to “protect and expand the Republican Senate Majority”, probably serving to Republicans efficiently wrest again management of the Senate on this election.

Musk has allegedly made different unreported donations to Republicans as nicely.

How was X deployed as a MAGA mouthpiece?

Unusual although it could now appear, Elon Musk was as soon as perceived as a liberal and a champion of renewable power who claimed to have voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. This picture has modified since 2022, following his takeover of the social media platform Twitter, now rebranded as X.

After pledging to show Twitter right into a “politically neutral” discussion board, Musk laid off staff accountable for monitoring disinformation. He additionally restored greater than 62,000 suspended accounts, together with white nationalist and neo-Nazi accounts accused of spreading hate speech and conspiracy theories.

Crucially, he additionally reversed the ban on Trump’s account, which the platform shut down after the assault on the US Capitol in January 2021, which many declare Trump inspired.

By the point the election rolled round, critics stated X had successfully turn out to be an unofficial home platform for the MAGA wing of the Republican Social gathering. The proprietor himself was accused of “fanboying” Trump and spreading misinformation amongst his 200 million followers, his affect amplified by X’s algorithm.

One instance was the promotion of a doctored video of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, which carried a faux voiceover saying: “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire.” Musk reposted the video in July with the phrases, “this is amazing” and a laughing emoji, garnering 136 million extra views for an merchandise which was not flagged as a parody.

Misinformation about “illegal aliens” voting within the election circulated on X as nicely. This, regardless of research from each conservative and left-leaning organisations displaying that the incidence of the offence, carrying penalties of as much as a 12 months in jail, a effective and potential deportation, was negligible.

A conspiracy idea that Democrats have been importing unlawful immigrants and granting them an amnesty to broaden their voter base in future elections was additionally allowed to flow into on X and amplified by Musk himself. “Dem. America would then become a one-party, deep blue socialist state,” he stated in a publish in October.

The Dems have imported large numbers of illegals to swing states. Triple digit will increase over the previous 4 years!

Their STATED plan is to present them citizenship as quickly as doable, turning all swing states Dem.

America would then turn out to be a one-party, deep blue socialist state. https://t.co/zxVmmR0GqO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2024

Following Trump’s televised debate in opposition to Harris in September, through which he repeated the false declare that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio city have been consuming cats and canine, Musk reposted a meme of a cat holding an indication saying “Kamala hates me” with a laughing emoji.

Regardless of his avowed dedication to free speech, Musk has suppressed some information tales, equivalent to an article by journalist Ken Klippenstein, which detailed Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s weak spots, reportedly obtained from leaked paperwork. Whereas the journalist’s account was later reinstated, hyperlinks to the article have been blocked.

A survey performed by the Pew Analysis Middle in March this 12 months confirmed the rising recognition of the platform amongst Republican supporters, displaying that 53 p.c thought it was “good for democracy”, roughly triple the 17 p.c who answered the identical manner in 2021.

Why has Musk allied himself with Trump?

A strong merger of their fanbases supercharged the alliance between Trump and Musk.

Not so way back, there was no love misplaced between the pair. In 2022, Trump referred to as Musk a “bulls**t artist” for allegedly mendacity about supporting him within the 2016 election. Musk responded on then-Twitter, saying it was “time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset”.

Quick ahead two years and the tech tycoon was side-by-side with Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, sporting a black MAGA hat.

Elon Musk, pictured at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has turn out to be one in every of Trump’s most necessary supporters [File: Evan Vucci/AP Photo]

Musk’s lurch to the fitting is typically attributed to the government-imposed closure of his Tesla vegetation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, he reopened a manufacturing unit in Fremont, California, declaring that he was able to be arrested, taking a stand in opposition to the “bureaucratic blob”.

His rightward shift has since turn out to be manifest in his relationships with anti-regulation leaders equivalent to Argentinian President Javier Milei. Musk has additionally turn out to be near worldwide right-wing leaders equivalent to Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, India’s Narendra Modi and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, a wide range of American media retailers, equivalent to Self-importance Truthful and the Washington Put up, have pointed to a deeper motivation, sparked by one in every of his youngsters’s resolution to come back out as transgender in 2022, chopping ties with Musk and altering their surname to Wilson. Claiming in an interview with Jordan Peterson that he had been “tricked” into signing off on their medical remedy, Musk introduced his campaign in opposition to the “woke mind virus”.

In 2021, Musk shifted Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, in Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, equally altering his residence from California to Texas. In July this 12 months, Musk stated he would transfer SpaceX and X from California to Texas over a legislation that bans faculties from forcing academics to inform mother and father when their little one modifications their gender id.

How has Musk helped Trump attain younger males?

Observers say Musk and Trump, who each current themselves as rule-breaking, non-mainstream “alpha males”, seem to have tapped right into a widespread sense of male frustration in America, partly derived from the #MeToo motion and the feminist backlash in opposition to “poisonous masculinity“, which has left some males saying they really feel stigmatised and marginalised.

Writing within the New York Instances final month, John Della Volpe, director of polling on the Harvard Kennedy Faculty Institute of Politics, referred to as Trump’s play for the younger male vote a “master class in bro whispering”. Angling for the “bro vote” seems to have paid off, with a latest Harvard Youth Ballot revealing that 35 p.c of males between 18 and 24 years previous who have been questioned voiced support for Trump, up 5 p.c from a 2020 survey.

It’s a sensibility that has discovered expression in so-called “bro” podcasts such because the Joe Rogan Expertise. Rogan endorsed Trump on Monday after interviewing Musk. “The great and powerful @elonmusk. If it wasn’t for him, we’d be f**ked. He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,” stated Rogan on X.

The message clearly resonated.

Two days later, Trump was elected forty seventh president of the US.