Billionaire Elon Musk dedicated significant personal time and at least $260m to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
That massive investment paid off for Trump, who has now returned to the White House. And it’s paid off for Musk, who has bought himself a choice seat at the new president’s table – he literally dined with the Trump family on Thanksgiving.
Musk has also been given a potentially powerful role as head of the “Department of Government Efficiency”, a nebulous nongovernmental entity charged with auditing the entire federal government. And as Trump begins to reassert his foreign policy in his early days back in office, Musk has made himself a key presence in Trump’s ad hoc diplomacy.
Musk joined Trump on a call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and at the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Musk’s growing role as an adviser, and perhaps more, on issues of foreign policy presents one of the biggest wild cards for the new Trump administration. If Musk remains as influential in the Trump administration as he has been during the campaign and transition periods, we are poised to see an American foreign policy driven by Musk’s net worth, his worldview, and, most notably, his ego.
Musk’s nine-figure investment in getting Trump elected has already benefitted Musk financially. Tesla’s market cap topped $1 trillion and Musk’s personal fortune grew to more than $300bn immediately after Trump’s win. Investors are counting on Musk’s companies benefitting from access to Trump, and they have good reason to believe that even American foreign policy will bend to serve these corporate interests.
Musk has managed to funnel American taxpayer dollars into his business ventures for years by painting his bottom line as a public good. Early in the Obama administration, the federal government extended a $465m loan to Tesla as part of its economic stimulus and clean energy agendas, helping the company move from a niche player to a major force in the auto industry. In 2015, the Los Angeles Times documented nearly $5bn in government subsidies acquired by Musk’s companies, including Telsa and SpaceX, and that number has only grown over time. For instance, although Musk had initially donated the use of his Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine during its war against Russia, the Pentagon quietly picked up the tab for an undisclosed amount after Musk threatened to cut the service off.
But even these examples pale in comparison to the extent to which American foreign policy may be dictated by Musk’s corporate interests going forward. Amid European efforts to regulate Musk’s social media platform X and punish Musk for noncompliance, incoming Vice President JD Vance suggested that continuing American support for NATO be conditioned on Europe rolling back its efforts against X.
Musk has lobbied the Trump administration to kill a tax credit on electric vehicles, a move that would deal a blow to US car manufacturers like General Motors and Ford – helping Musk’s own Tesla by hurting these competitors – and benefit China, which already has a huge lead on the EV market, including much of Tesla’s production.
Musk’s influence on foreign policy may have an outsized impact on areas of the world where Trump is simply uninterested. Take sub-Saharan Africa, a region that Trump mostly ignored outside of dismissing countries there as “sholes” and targeting several of them with his so-called “Muslim ban”. Musk’s Starlink service is rapidly expanding across Africa. This has boosted internet access in a number of countries, but continued expansion faces regulatory hurdles. This is a policy area in which Musk could use the levers of American influence to pressure these governments to drop their attempts to restrict or regulate Starlink. Such a move would have both benefits and costs for the countries involved, expanding connectivity for their citizens but potentially costing telecom jobs if local providers are pushed out of business. But the benefits to Musk are clear, and Musk is well-positioned to use his leverage here and elsewhere to the benefit of his corporate empire.
Outside of promoting positions and policies that would increase his already massive net worth, Musk has also established an increasingly conservative political agenda which sometimes supersedes his financial interests. Musk’s impulsive purchase of Twitter seems to have been driven by his absolutist position on “free speech” and his desire to own a platform where he can freely share his own opinions about the world. As Musk has drifted to the far right in his own views, which he regularly shares on X, he has found a kindred spirit in Donald Trump. In recent months, Musk has tweeted in favour of cutting foreign aid and expressed scepticism at international treaties that “restrict the freedoms of Americans,” ideas that resonate with Trump.
Trump and Musk indeed share a penchant for cosying up to authoritarians and the far right. After sparking controversy on Inauguration Day by giving what appeared to be a Nazi salute – an accusation that Musk has subsequently mocked online – the billionaire appeared by video at an event held by Germany’s far-right AfD party. Musk has previously insisted tha