As the richest man in the world with an incredibly popular social media platform, electric car company, and space exploration company, Musk has a notable influence in the political world when he wants to. Musk’s America PAC is a super PAC started by himself and contributed to by other billionaires such as Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of a Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm. Besides the sheer amount of money being funneled into the PAC, what’s so super about it? There is a big difference between Super PACs, PACs, and interest groups.
To start with the grassroots, interest groups are organizations that have a stake in a specific issue, such as abortion, gun violence/rights, or environmental impacts. These groups seek to influence public policy from the local to national level. They can endorse a candidate who they believe would support their endeavors, but they cannot donate money to a political campaign. Broadening up are PACs or Political Action Committees that are usually committed to or against a candidate. They raise money to donate but have strict contribution limits to campaigns. They can run advertisements, encourage groups of people to vote, push certain issues on the public they believe are the most important, etc. A Super PAC is not withheld by donations limitations as a PAC is because they do not work directly with a campaign. Musk’s America PAC is independent of Trump’s campaign by law but can run ads and hold rallies.
Besides having some money to spend, many politicians and economists have assessed what’s in it for Musk. Investors assessed as early as the morning after the election that Tesla’s stocks would skyrocket with Trump’s presidential victory. CNN reports: “That lifted the value of the 411 million shares of Tesla that Musk owns outright by more than $15 billion, which works out to a 12,761% return on the $119 million he donated to Trump”. This pulled Tesla out of the stock market slump it has been in for the past couple of years. Musk succeeded in getting his name back out in the public eye as the key donator to Trump’s successful political campaign.
In addition to Trump’s commitment to tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, he has not campaigned as a candidate committed to reversing climate change. Whereas many democrats have pushed for a complete transition to electric cars in the coming decades, Trump has promised to repeal any attempts to do so. For Musk, this eliminates much of the competition Tesla faces in the EV industry. Elon Musk remains a household name and Tesla as a leader in electric vehicles globally.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/04/us/elections/musk-america-pac-trump-voters.html
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/16/g-s1-28591/elon-musk-donald-trump-america-pac-fec
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/06/business/elon-musk-election-bet/index.html
3 comments:
I think this is a timely topic, especially because we are doing the interest groups project right now. Other than Trump benefiting from Musk's donations, and Musk benefiting from Trump's policy, there is also X (Twitter). After Trump was banned from Twitter after the Jan. 6th event, his account was restored after Musk took a poll on whether Trump should regain his access. Although the poll was close with 51.8% favored and 48.2% opposed (15 million votes), at the end of the day he was unbanned from the app. Even though Trump has been inactive recently on X because of his new social media app, Truth Social, that he opened, researchers state that the app is turning more far-right. Musk promoted an X Community called the Election Integrity Community, which was created by the America PAC. The community is full of users spreading conspiracy theories, misinformation, and voting frauds. As well as the algorithm tilting towards the right side. If Musk continues to interact with Trump, both may continue to take advantage of each other.
Literally one of the most ridiculous things that has happened coming out of this campaign. It's interesting: when Musk was more liberal, he was just another tech figure. On the right side, he's revered like a champion and a savior. One only needs to spend a minimal amount of time on X to see the cult of personality he's built around himself, and this is his attempt to exert influence on policy. That's what rich and famous people do, with lots of money and fame, the next step is to gain influence, if not for service to the community but also for personal ego. The fact that he's willing to pump so much money into this election demonstrates his drive to achieve such a thing, and I wonder what position Trump will appoint him to, if at all, or if that sardonic NYT piece that came out yesterday about Trump dumping Elon is true after all.
Trump and Elon Musk's relationship is one of the most interesting things that has come out of this election, and furthermore electing him to become the head of DOGE(Department of Government Efficiency). This unofficial agency will become an advisory department that will oversee the restructuring of federal governments and cutting out wasteful expenditures, which some in America may ask what the CEO of Tesla would know about it. As Darren stated, most know him as just a tech figure, and the millions that Musk poured into Trump's campaign, only further puts Elon Musk in a position of power. Before it was Tesla and X, and now it is the government.
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