Donald Trump has won the popular vote but it almost looks like Elon Musk has won the US Presidential election. From seeing a $21 billion jump in his net worth following Trump’s win to taking part in the President-elect’s conversations with other heads of State, and now heading a pseudo-government department, Musk has been everywhere. To borrow his penchant for memes and puns, it’s almost like he’s been doge-ing your steps.
Jokes aside, Musk’s backing of Trump, and Trump’s wholehearted reciprocal embrace has now made the Tesla CEO a serious part of US policymaking, whether it has to do with geopolitics or government finances. Not to mention Trump’s heightened use of Musk’s social media platform X to communicate with the electorate.
In the mix are important questions regarding conflicts of interest. For all this and more, Elon Musk is ThePrint Newsmaker of the Week.
Defusing wars, gaining billions
Musk first endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt on the then-presidential candidate in July. He set up a political action committee (PAC), basically a funding mechanism, to aid Trump’s campaign. According to reports, this PAC spent $200 million to help elect Trump. On the flip side, after Trump’s win, the stock price surge in Musk’s companies meant his net worth jumped $20.9 billion nearly overnight. Talk about a return on investment.
Musk’s footprint went from digital to real-world very quickly, with Trump reportedly asking him to sit in on his calls with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It’s unclear what it means that Musk wasn’t there on the call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but Musk’s political ascendancy seems to have already left its mark on the Indian government and its business decisions. On Tuesday, Union Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia indicated that India would soon grant a licence to Musk’s Starlink to begin operations here, once all security clearances are granted. This has been a matter pending for a few years now.
Musk’s inclusion on the calls with Zelenskyy and Erdogan was not a one-off incident, driven by a post-win euphoria, either. The New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources, that Musk on Monday met Iran’s ambassador to the US at a secret location to help defuse tensions between the US and Iran.
One might ask what Musk knows about foreign relations or diplomacy, but that would be an irrelevant question. After all, Trump’s unconventional picks for his cabinet have surprised nobody and baffled many. Rather, Trump would like you ask: What’s the big deal in a tech billionaire being co-opted to defuse a war that’s been raging for about 2.5 years, or ease tensions with a country the US has been wrangling with for decades?
Also read: Are flight bomb threats pranks or conspiracy? Cost of ‘hoax’ to Indian aviation is real
The DOGE push
Leaving aside whatever benefit Trump can get from Musk’s involvement, Musk can benefit greatly from Trump’s presidency. The most recent and obvious benefit has to do with the advisory committee Trump announced on Tuesday under Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Named the Department of Government Efficiency, it can’t be a coincidence that its acronym is DOGE, the name of the popular cryptocurrency — Dogecoin — that Musk has been promoting for a while now.
Looks like it’s not just the Modi government that can come up with clever acronyms.
While Musk and Ramaswamy will reportedly serve in DOGE for free, there’s no real doubt about what they will get in return — incredible influence within the US administration. After all, one of DOGE’s primary mandates is to cut the flab in US government departments by identifying and potentially removing surplus manpower.
In other news, the price of Dogecoin has tripled over the last month. Nothing to see here, move along.
Speaking of conflicts of interest, the remarkable thing about Musk’s current position is how each of his companies stands to gain individually.
Take Tesla, for example. There is something to be said about the Indian government’s renewed push — as reported earlier this week — to invite luxury electric vehicle makers for a workshop so they can iron out any policy issues that might be preventing them from investing in India.
Musk had previously deferred Tesla’s plans to invest in India. The renewed effort to woo Tesla, in the very first week after Trump’s win, could be entirely coincidental. But there’s no way to be sure.
Another way Musk could benefit from his newfound political prominence is with his satellite communications company Starlink. In a rare show of solidarity, both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel — India’s biggest telecom companies — asked the government to auction satellite spectrum rather than allocate it administratively, as Starlink has been asking. The government already seems to be leaning toward the allocation method, something that will likely become a certainty now.
Then there’s Trump’s heightened use of X as his mouthpiece of choice. Trump’s X handle is where he has been making most of his announcements, including cabinet appointments. Apart from the damage this will do to mainstream media, it stands to also inordinately benefit X.
It’s not new for businessmen and governments to cozy up for mutual gain — the US ‘robber barons’ did it, as did Asia’s ‘national champions’. But the Trump-Musk bromance seems to be something else.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)