Musk campaigns for Trump, suicide for Tesla?

Yesterday public enemies, the head of Tesla and the candidate for the Presidency of the United States Donald Trump are now friends. Why?

Turns are a source of pleasure when driving. In politics, especially when it threatens the image of a globally famous company, it’s more dangerous.

And yet, Elon Musk spoke following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump to praise his courage and ideas, calling him “tough”. “I fully support President Trump and hope he recovers quickly. The last time America had a candidate as tough as him, it was Theodore Roosevelt“.

Following this, Elon Musk stated he had poured several million dollars (American media reports mention $45 million monthly until November 2024) into Donald Trump’s campaign funding. A surprising turnaround, considering that just a few months ago, the two men were publicly criticizing each other, with Trump being a notorious opponent of electric vehicles. He had even called Musk “an artist of nonsense“.

SpaceX is the reason?

Elon Musk, an openly libertarian figure, is a disruptive character convinced that complete freedom of speech is necessary in our societies that will soon be supplanted by artificial intelligence… which he is funding with billions. In April 2024, he did not hesitate to be seen with Argentine President Javier Milei, labeled as far-right.

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But Musk is above all a businessman who reacts based on self-interest: the Biden administration wants to impose more regulations on the military-commercial activities of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company. An absolutely extraordinary flagship but which is now a source of tension with many states. Musk dreams of being a master of the world and does not appreciate that authorities, who partly finance him, regulate him.

The industrial suicide of Tesla?

There remains the problem of Tesla, of which Elon Musk seems to be increasingly disinterested. Being pushed out hard since he sold millions of shares in 2023, he still hangs on but confesses to spending more time interacting on his platform X (formerly Twitter) than managing Tesla. These remarks annoy the shareholders of the Californian manufacturer, who use these statements to refuse the payment of a huge bonus of $56 billion for services rendered over the years.

Elon Musk thus appears to be engaging in a scorched earth policy that is unjustifiable considering that Donald Trump has promised to cut off any aid for the sale of electric cars in the United States… but to give subsidies for the purchase of gasoline cars! A total turnaround that Tesla buyers could retaliate against, as hearts largely lean towards the Democratic wing of Joe Biden.

What is Elon Musk playing at with Donald Trump? We will find out very soon.

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