Today President Elect Trump has appointed Elon Musk to head the new department of government efficiency. While this isn't an actual government department it will act similar to the President's cabinet as an advisory board to the national government run by entrepreneurs. This department gives Elon Musk the a formal advisory position in which he can influence the government. Currently, he has said his main goals in the position are to advise on government spending and to prevent any unnecessary waste.
Elon Musk donated an estimated 200$ million to have Trump elected and publicly advocated for him throughout his campaign, and it has paid off. Unfortunately, it isn't an unprecedented thing in American Government to reward loyal followers, and Trump has already rewarded many MAGA supporters with other positions. The thing surprising about this is that Elon Musk has never held any sort of government position before, and Trump hopes that this will redefine the relationship between large corporation and the government in the future.
However, at the core, this is simply the President Elect rewarding the supporting interest groups. Elon Musk donated so much that he himself can be considered his own interest group, however his policy preferences reflect those of most of the top .01%: Lower taxes and decrease government influence. Elon Musk's support is a very public example of electioneering done by interest groups, in which they donate money and rally there supporters to vote for a specific candidate. In this case, Elon Musk got a large amount of his fans to vote for Trump through his open endorsement.
Already this decision has been heavily criticized by progressive sources as not only does Elon Musk not have any experience with government, but he stands to profit immensely off of this position. Already Tesla Stock, Elon's biggest company, has skyrocketed up to double the value of only a few months ago, and nearly 25% since election night, meaning Elon Musk has made back his money and more already. In the future, his company stands to have an even higher evaluation, though fortunately the current $328.64 evaluation per stock fell 6% today, a potential sign of stock inflation past it's actual value. Overall, this nomination of Elon Musk to a position of power in Trump's Government means that most likely in the next 4 years, there will be many policies benefitting the very wealthy and top corporations, ranging from tax cuts to anti-union laws.
https://fortune.com/2024/11/09/timothy-mellon-net-worth-top-donor-trump-campaign-elon-musk/
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/top-analyst-lays-out-bold-bull-case-for-tesla-stock-price-target
10 comments:
Ah yes, Andrew Jackson and the spoils system, rewarding political contributors with political positions or some sort of power. Also connects to what we've been talking about in class with campaign financing (and the reform and "unfairness"/loopholes involved). The fact that Elon Musk is able to spend so much on his campaign is the opposite of what Citizens United and surrounding entities proclaim as "freedom of speech", rather it elevates those with preexisting money and influence rather than allowing citizens to have a larger voice. Additionally, I'm also confused as to what the crudely named DOGE will even do. Scanning through right-wing journalism outlets it looks as though they may even attempt to go after the Department of Education to "return education to the states" which would be disastrous: I'm worried about the future of American government when those who know nothing about government try to meddle in its processes.
With the strict campaign finance regulations I'm curious as to how Elon was able to donate $200 million. Either way, it's really scary to think about the implications that this connection of industry to government may entail. It seems like we're falling down a rabbit hole towards fascism, who knows what Elon will do with his new position? All that's certain now is that his proposed policies are only going to make him richer, and this money will only make him more powerful.
The friendship between Trump and Musk is such an interesting dynamic, however considering that Musk is one of the richest people in the world, it makes sense that he would be able to give millions to Trump's campaign. However, Elon is now not only industrially powerful, but governmentally powerful which can be slightly concerning to many. Who knows what he will do with the new found power and money, and also his lack of governmental experience makes this new position of power even more concerning. We'll see where this goes soon, and we'll see if corruption starts to creep into our system.
As much as the spoils system is unfair, I do recognize that it will always happen one way or another. My concern with Musk particularly being a member of the government is conflicting interests. This is already something of a problem with government officials investing in companies, but with Musk being one of the wealthiest people on the planet and owning massive companies like Tesla and Space X, I cannot imagine his self-interest not getting in the way of him contributing to the government. Also, as far as this new government department goes, I am petty confused. I am all in favor of maximizing government efficiency and removing corruption, but it doesn't seem like they know exactly how they ae going to go about it. I saw some congress members react to the announcement of this department, and it seems like they didn't take it seriously either.
This definitely connects to our in-class discussion about how interest groups attempt to influence policy decisions through politicians. The main difference in this case is that it is a single man who happens to be the richest person in the world and donated a measly 0.065% of his entire net worth. This really brings up the question as to how much money should really be influencing politics. Like at what point does monetary donations stop being called lobbying and donations and start being called bribery? The definition of bribery is "the offering, giving, soliciting, or receiving of any item of value as a means of influencing the actions of an individual holding a public or legal duty", which really begs the question as to how can buying a position in government be legal? It's pretty obvious that Elon Musk wouldn't have a position in the new Department of Government Efficiency had he not made massive donations to the Trump campaign, and it's really worrying that he can get away with something like that.
It’s worrisome to me to have these two billionaires collaborating and being in control of the economy especially because they’re proving to be out of touch with the other 99% of Americans. Musk wants to cut $2 trillion from federal spending which would disservice things like food stamps, Medicaid, education and even the Department of Justice, NASA, our national defense, infrastructure, and so much more. This is going to put poor Americans at an even bigger disadvantage. It’s crazy that Musk has said that this economic crash is a “necessity… requiring temporary hardship, but will ensure long-term prosperity” because he is not going to be the one affected by his actions. That $2 trillion number is absurdly large though, so while many experts are saying it’s probably not possible, the intention is still there and there will be budget cuts of some kind. This “Department of Government Efficiency” is not really aimed at making programs more efficient, but rather getting rid of programs that don’t align with Trump’s agenda.
Spending 200 million on a campaign, to return 15 billion dollars richer a week later is something the stock market cannot bring upon for sure. The laws around campaign financing are clearly not rigid enough, to reward spoils such as this, with government positions that are vastly unqualified for; in fact even having to be 'built in' to accommodate. This appointment is one of many, including Matt Gaetz for attorney general, who was investigated by that very department for sex trafficking crimes a year earlier; RFK who doesn't believe in vaccines and wants to urge states to remove fluoride from water put into a national health position? This is corruption. How much should money and personal interest/party or candidate loyalty be influencing our governments? Why isn't their limits on spoils systems, when it brings about a distorted array of officials into the benefits of power and influence.
It's honestly ridiculous for new Interest Groups to be created out of corporations. If an interest group is an interest group, then it should be allowed to be that and only that. Elon Musk is already a ridiculously successful individual, and has been as such for years and years. In all honesty, he has nothing to really gain from politics, and honestly just seems to be trying to make more money for the sake of making money. And his decisions seeming to already be serving the elites is just an altogether new kind of wrong. The worst part is that I really had no idea this was happening.
It really feels like Trump is just adding people to his team merely on the basis of how loyal they are to him, which could partially be due to the fact that he had hired people in his first term that ended up turning their backs on him. However, regardless of the reason, electing people to government positions just on this basis, positions that have the power to impact the entire country, is just baffling to me. It almost feels like this is just one big publicity stunt, giving a billionaire a political position in the American national government, just because he paid you a fat check. It’s seriously scary how immature and reckless Trump’s already acting before even getting into office.
It's interesting how 'Uncle Elon' is making his way into politics to work with Trump to create a concentration of power to reduce the scope of bureaucratic government in order to deregulate industries for more growth as they say. Musk has certainly played a big role in Trumps campaign, tweeting over a hundred times every week for the past couple of months with memes and sometimes even misinformation to mobilize young male voters who felt left out from Democrats' policies which focused on minority groups. He and Trump formed an alliance that represented values like entrepreneurship that aligned with voters who cared less about politics. He gained morale from everyone who had a stake in the Tesla stock because of its share price; but this also goes to show that some people prefer direct profits from the markets and businesses over paying the government taxes and letting the government reallocate those funds into other parts in the economy where they're not the beneficiaries/see no short term gain. Musks businesses have already risen in valuation by 50% since the start of his campaigning for Trump and his take-over of the DOGE will only help himself and other allies. While Musk was able to benefit off of Trumps presidential nomination, Trump will also need Musk's help and influence when it comes to negotiating with other economic giants like China in the trade war that's likely to come in the upcoming years.
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