At first glance, Elon Musk and Donald Trump wouldn’t seem to be natural allies.
One has made cutting greenhouse emissions a major business selling point. The other questions the need to cut emissions at all, denouncing most forms of clean energy as at best unnecessary and at worst destructive.
One aims to move away from fossil fuels and transition all car sales worldwide to electric vehicles. The other believes EVs will be an economic disaster for America and advocates for more oil production and consumption.
However, as of Saturday, Musk has publicly endorsed Trump’s presidential reelection bid. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported Monday that Musk plans to support Trump’s presidential campaign by committing $45 million a month to a new super PAC backing the former president.
These potential donations represent a significant development not only for the presidential campaign but also for the relationship between the two men. Both have fervent support among millions of fans who are ready to believe most anything they say.
Musk has previously donated to candidates from both political parties, including $5,000 to Barack Obama in April 2011. Although he used to primarily support Democratic candidates, these relatively small contributions pale compared to the amount he is now reportedly dedicating to the Republican presidential candidate. Musk has stated for several years that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left for him to support many of its candidates.
Musk did not comment directly on the Journal report. Instead, he posted a meme of people dressed as African wildebeests with the caption “Fake Gnus,” suggesting the report was incorrect. Following an assassination attempt on Trump, Musk tweeted, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.”
Moreover, in response to an account he frequently interacts with, @EndWokeness, stating that Musk “went from being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT. The woke left really messed up. Badly,” Musk responded with a simple “yeah.”
The super PAC, named America PAC, aims to help register voters, encourage early voting, and promote mail-in ballots in swing states, according to a source.
Beyond his financial support for the Trump campaign, Musk, with 190 million followers on his platform X, is one of the world’s most-followed influencers and the wealthiest individual on the planet.
He has millions of fans. A recent Tesla annual meeting had the atmosphere of a political rally, with shareholders expressing their deep affection for Musk.
At that meeting, 84% of shareholders voted in favor of restoring the most lucrative pay package ever given to a CEO, including stock options worth $48 billion at the time. A judge in Delaware had previously stripped him of that package.
Asked at the meeting about his relationship with Trump, despite Trump’s criticism of EVs, Musk replied, “I can be persuasive.”
“I have had some conversations with him, and he just called me out of the blue for no reason. He’s very nice when he calls, and I was like, ‘electric cars are good for the future. America is the leader in electric cars, buy American stuff.’ A lot of his friends now have Teslas and they love it. He’s a huge fan of the Cybertruck. So, I think those may be contributing factors.”
Relations between the two haven’t always been friendly. Musk quit two White House business councils in early 2017 after Trump announced America would withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
“Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” Musk tweeted at that time.
However, in recent years, Musk has shown repeated support for Trump or opposition to President Joe Biden.
Soon after Musk purchased the social media platform then known as Twitter in the fall of 2022, he restored Trump’s Twitter account. He has complained that Twitter previously censored anti-Biden stories improperly, although Twitter’s own lawyers later challenged that conclusion in a court filing.
Tesla, the primary source of Musk’s immense wealth, has benefited from subsidies passed under the Biden Administration, providing tax credits of up to $7,500 for EV buyers. These tax credits also help established automakers seeking to sell their own EVs. Musk recently tweeted that the EV subsidies passed under Biden actually helped its rivals more than Tesla.
“Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla,” he tweeted early Tuesday. “Also, remove subsidies from all industries!”
While Musk is correct that industries like coal and oil receive significant government subsidies, his tweet does not acknowledge that much of his wealth has come from government support of Tesla and SpaceX, his other company that depends on government contracts to operate.