Elon Musk loves Donald Trump. He’s been just about his greatest supporter – and patron – within the 2024 election, particularly after Trump’s near-assassination in July. The person exhibits up at Trump’s rallies, jumps like a “dipshit” and yaps about how nice he’s and the way he’ll save the nation. It’s all very bizarre.
Anyway, we all know how Musk has been supporting Trump: via social media posts and his America PAC which he has donated over $70 million, however we don’t actually know why he’s doing it. Why would this man spend over $100 million simply to get somebody he likes elected? Would a Harris presidency actually be that a lot totally different for the world’s richest man? In a brand new story, Vox takes a deep dive into precisely why Musk sees Trump as such an important match, and it’s not simply because he’s cute and so they each hate anybody who isn’t a cis white male.
The author spoke with one other Vox reporter, Whizy Kim, who has been reporting on the whole lot Elon for years now, to strive to determine what he sees within the former president, what he actually desires, and what he’ll do if he will get it. From Vox:
Persona-wise, and simply when it comes to their worldview, what I actually observed from the X dialog that they’d in August was that they each come from a spot of feeling personally aggrieved. Trump at many factors talked about how his opponents had engaged unfairly towards him, all of those legal courtroom instances towards him, these trials, as a result of they don’t need him to win the election. They’ve each steadily been critics of the media. Elon Musk has additionally talked about how legacy media is de facto biased and doesn’t platform the reality. They may form of take a look at one another and say, “Yeah, you get me. We’ve each been unfairly attacked.”
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Beneath the Biden administration, Elon Musk felt that loads of these regulatory businesses are staffed with people who find themselves holding an in depth eye over company misbehavior. His firms have been investigated or fined by totally different authorities businesses, whether or not it’s the Labor Board, OSHA, the SEC, or the Division of Transportation, and Elon Musk sees this as unfair. Even when he acknowledges that his firms didn’t observe security laws, he’ll be like, nicely, these security measures are silly, anyway. I feel I do know finest. I run my firm. I’m an knowledgeable in these fields. The federal government is simply clunky and slowing us down.
One of many issues that he proposed through the Trump interview was some form of authorities effectivity fee. And Trump was form of like, oh, yeah, that’s a good suggestion … and possibly you may assist run it. Primarily, that form of fee would slash the budgets of loads of regulatory businesses.
Trump and Musk are form of framing that as making a authorities that’s extra smart and environment friendly concerning the funds, however actually, it may additionally doubtlessly function a strategy to flush the budgets of businesses which have been coming after his firms. If he has Trump’s ear, you already know, he may say, “Properly, possibly if you wish to appoint a brand new individual to the Labor Board, it needs to be somebody extra pleasant to companies, moderately than to employees.” That’s a possible form of alliance that they might type.
For Musk’s sake, he higher hope this masterful gamit pays off. He’s actually painted himself right into a nook that’ll be exhausting to come back again from if Trump loses on November 5:
I do assume that he’ll proceed to be extra politically vocal, as a result of he’s opened up a can of worms. It’s more durable to return when there’s an extended file of him popping out for a Trump crowd, formally endorsing him, and all of that.
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[O]ne of the the reason why these rich, influential figures attempt to keep quiet is as a result of they need to play each side, proper? Elon Musk has come out so vociferously as pro-Trump and criticizing Biden and criticizing Kamala Harris. If Kamala Harris wins, is there room for Elon to come back again and say, “Hey, let’s nonetheless work collectively in some capability?” That’s going to be a a lot more durable highway.
