Do We Want Elon Musk in Charge?
This week, Elon Musk significantly escalated his efforts to support Donald Trump's campaign in ways that we should all be talking about and, frankly, be incredibly concerned about.
All of this builds on the billionaire purchasing Twitter, buying what many would call the country’s largest political public square and twisting it to support his own political interests. About a third of his posts on X are misleading, false or contextually challenged.
And now things are getting weirder and more concerning. Recently we’ve seen:
Campaign Tour: Musk went on a pro-Trump campaign tour through Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state, to rally support for Trump. You may have seen the photo of him jumping for joy.
The $1 Million Daily Giveaway: Musk originally announced he’d give $100 to everyone in Pennsylvania who signed his petition, $100 for every referral of a PA voter, and $47 for referrals of other swing state voters, but then increased that to giving $1 million every day until the November 5 election to randomly selected registered voters who sign his petition who live in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina (swing states). He says the petition is about supporting the 1st and 2nd amendment but it’s clearly a data grab.
Conspiracy Theories: Musk promoted the debunked election fraud theory relating to notoriously litigious Dominion voting machines.
PAC Funding: It was revealed that Musk has contributed nearly $75 million to America PAC, a committee supporting Trump's campaign efforts making him a top campaign donor.
Problems with the PAC: According to the Guardian, though it hasn’t been otherwise corroborated, roughly a quarter of door-knocks carried out by the PAC in Arizona and Nevada were flagged by a canvassing app used by the committee as potentially fraudulent.
Musk's increased involvement in the presidential campaign, combined with his ownership of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), has sparked debates about the influence of billionaires in politics and the spread of misinformation during election seasons.
This isn’t just your run-of-the-mill billionaire. This is a billionaire who controls information and influence for millions of people. And a billionaire who is trying to buy people’s votes with his tremendous wealth. (Is this how Hunger Games started?)
This is a billionaire dangling a million dollars a day to those whom he has no interest in supporting economically once his chosen regime is in office.
And Elon is clearly hoping for a big payoff. Billionaires don’t do anything for free my friends.
Trump has said if elected he would appoint Musk to head a government efficiency commission, an idea first proposed by Musk in August when he interviewed Trump on X.
But let’s be clear, Elon wouldn’t take that job out of the goodness of his heart. According to the New York Times “His companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts last year with 17 federal agencies…Two of Elon Musk’s companies account for at least $15.4 billion in government contracts over the past decade.” His companies are also the subject of “over 20 recent investigations or reviews, including over the safety of his Tesla cars and the environmental damage caused by his rockets.”
If Trump wins, it’s likely that Elon will attempt to use the immense power he has purchased for his personal financial benefit. There are many examples of his tiffs with the federal government, everything from getting charged by the SEC, to arguing with the FAA and trying to get out of environmental impact regulations: “He has questioned a rule that required SpaceX to obtain a permit for discharging large amounts of potentially polluted water from its launchpad in Texas.” Deregulation and self-enrichment will likely be the hallmarks of a Musk influence on the Trump presidency.
As VP candidate Tim Walz said today:
“That guy is literally the richest man in the world. Spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election … they’re saying the quiet parts out loud now. Because Donald Trump has already promised that he would put Elon in charge of government regulations that oversee the businesses that Elon runs… So in other words, DT in front of the eyes of the American public is promising corruption.”
So one of the biggest questions here is—is what Elon is doing legal?