Billionaire Elon Musk would be in charge of slimming down the US administration if Donald Trump defeats Kamala Harris on November 5. That is, neither more nor less, the position or responsibility that the Republican candidate apparently reserves in the future Trump Administration for the brand new owner of Tesla and SpaceX, two of the pioneering companies in developing and applying the emerging and feared Artificial Intelligence. Cutting spending, reducing the federal State, abolishing taxes, is a traditional obsession of the right.
Musk’s sudden infatuation with Trump – after more than just run-ins – is something that makes you think. Musk had no need to take sides. And even less to verbalize such resounding and explicit support or – if it were the case – to assume a task as unpleasant as starting to cut expenses. As if he didn’t have enough of his own! There it is nothing. He has it in his mind to send a manned mission to Mars, a planet that is at a distance that makes ridiculous the 384,400 km that separate the Earth from the Moon.
It is an alliance, to say the least, surprising. Especially for the extraterrestrial tycoon. What can Elon Musk gain from it? It’s not because of the millions of dollars in donations that Musk contributes thanks and love to the victory of the Republican or his purchase of votes, is the time he invests – a time that in his case must be gold – when, for example, he throws all the meat on the grill in the state of Pennsylvania to achieve 20 electoral votes for Republicans. Vital. Trump lost to Biden in Pennsylvania in 2020 and won against Clinton in 2016. The result in Pennsylvania crowned him first. And he evicted him later. It is, coincidentally, the same state where Trump lost a piece of his ear but saved his life. The same one where Musk cut his teeth as a university student.
Musk graduated in Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and seems to have set out to be a prophet in his homeland even though his country of origin is apartheid South Africa. In fact, after passing through Canada, he has triple nationality. A regime that it is fair to remember his father, also a millionaire Errol Musk, opposed as a councilor in Pretoria.
With the eccentric and amoral Trump
No one has crossed as many red lines as Trump. He is the guy who incited the storming of the Capitol in 2021, which is why he was expelled from Twitter and later rehabilitated by its new owner, Elon Musk, in the name of freedom of expression. There the rapprochement began to be forged. Trump said he would not return to Twitter – he corrected the shot – while launching his own social network: Truth Social. In other words, ‘The truth’, what is said by a proven compulsive liar like Trump resembles sarcasm.
It happens that Trump is the most extreme version in the history of the Republican Party, the most degenerate and wild. Not because of its protectionist economic recipes or because of its desire to waterproof the border with Mexico, nor because of its tariffs, nor because of its self-confidence, nor because of its denialism. Simply because it is amoral. Sarah Palin – who was the vice presidential candidate with John MaCain – brought it on. But it had its codes. It was him Tea Party. Trump, on the other hand, is pure debauchery and has crowned himself the monarch of post-truth.
Furthermore, if anyone preaches against what Tesla represents, it is precisely the protectionist Trump. As if he were some kind of 21st century Luddite, he scares technology. You don’t want cars like Tesla’s that are electric and – in a pioneering use of AI – do not have a driver. A new industry, in line with the times we live in, which, to top off Trumpism, puts combustion engines in check. Which leaves Ford, General Motors and Chrysler hanging in the balance. They are not far enough from the push not only of Tesla but of the Chinese who far surpass the American motor giants. Today, China produces better and cheaper electric cars than the historic multinationals in the United States. By the way, saved by the Obama Government at the time, after the colossal financial crisis of subprime mortgages. There is a connection of interests there, penalizing Chinese imports. That is no small decision for Tesla.
But the average American is what he is. Burning gasoline is in his blood. Except in California, where the electric car continues to gain market share, the rest of the country continues to cling to the roar of the engine, to circuits like the Indianapolis 500. In contrast, the city of Los Angeles shines with its own light, contributing to exceeding one million units. In all of Catalonia, at the end of 2023, there were only 82,000 electric cars registered. And in all of Spain less than half a million.
According to Forbes, Musk is the main fortune in the universe. He became infatuated with Twitter and managed to raise a whopping $44 billion to take over ‘the digital town square’ in his own words. He suddenly went after the social network, acquired it and refounded it as X. It was Trump’s favorite social network. There were plenty of characters for a direct guy like the former president, who cooked quickly. Why more sophistication? There it must be admitted that Musk – an infinitely more cultured guy – also lets himself go. Extroverted and eager for prominence, he has been the protagonist of countless controversies. Like Trump, in that they are kindred spirits, he likes to be in the limelight. No discretion. Always attracting attention, always on the crest of the wave.
Musk, like Trump, is also the son of a wealthy family. Trump’s virtue was expanding his father’s real estate businesses from (Queens) Brooklyn to Manhattan. Musk, on the other hand, created his own empire. Global. Always with an innovative spirit and always with an avant-garde character. He is the one who founded Open AI. Musk is the global prototype of the entrepreneur and achiever. He is the American dream like Fred Trump, Donald’s father, was.
From Hillary Clinton to Trump and against Harris
But the question remains. Why this support for the worst Trump, right now, when in 2016 he asked to vote for Hillary Clinton? What need do you have? Musk then assured that climate change was an incontestable reality and that Hillary was right. This is how he justified his vote. But Clinton lost. If something weighed against Hillary Clinton in 2016, it was being seen by the down-and-out middle classes as the candidate of the establishment, of Wall Street and the big interests, to the point that even Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy in the Democratic primaries of that year alluding to the fact that it was impossible to fight against what Hillary represented. He had the bulk of the support and that also meant the bulk of the money for the campaign to flow.
Why is Musk now, after championing the flag of the anti-establishment libertarian, betting on Trump against a Kamala Harris who is not Clinton at all? What does it obey?
A concatenation of interests of Trump and Musk is alluded to. A powerful knight is Don Dinero. But that argument squeaks. As if Elon Musk didn’t already receive good money from the Biden Administration that subsidizes the electric car – ‘let them rot in hell’ -Trump said. The Republican revolts virulently against the electric car, simply ensuring that he will subsidize combustion engines while at the same time declaring war on electric cars.
In order to find a financial explanation, future aid in the aerospace race (in favor of SpaceX) to the detriment of Boeing or other competitors against the powerful NASA is alluded to. It doesn’t make much sense. Precisely, the Aerospace Agency has recently awarded a contract to SpaceX to the detriment of Boeing for a trip to the International Space Station in 2025. There is nothing that a Democratic administration could not offer to SpaceX with much more ease when the acceptance of climate change – and everything that it entails – is for them peaceful and it is assumed, in turn, that the combustion vehicle fleet must be progressively replaced by electric ones.
A personal issue?
But then how do you explain such a close alliance? Why has Musk committed himself to Trump to the point of turning it into what may even seem like a personal matter? Well, perhaps for the same reason as when he launched himself euphorically on the Twitter network, for a combination of audacity, outburst, whim and arrogance. Or by personal affinity. Nor is it unexpected. To what extent does the rejection of immigration weigh? Which would already enter the realm of ideology above other considerations. Or his frontal rejection of the influence of ‘woke culture’ along the same lines. Let’s add the management of his relationship with a trans son who has disowned him as a father. Or, in addition or perhaps, because Elon Musk simply feels like it and can afford it.
There is no entirely logical explanation beyond relevant facts or speculations. Despite the obvious ideological affinities between Trump and Musk, the contradictions are also notable. Or maybe, what is also important is that when you have a fortune estimated at 250,000 million dollars, the world and what happens in it is seen in a different way.
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