What we know about Elon Musk’s potential role in the Trump administration

On November 8, 2024By Littum

Upper line

With Donald Trump’s presidential victory, the stage is set for one of his most prolific supporters – the world’s richest person, Elon Musk – to exercise his newfound political influence, and while it’s a mystery what role he might play in the administration, Musk has set more priorities.

Trump, left, and Musk greet each other on the campaign trail last month.

Getty Images

Key facts

In his 25-minute victory talkTrump spent nearly four minutes discussing Musk, hailing the Tesla and SpaceX CEO a “super genius,” lavishing praise on SpaceX’s rocket launches and satellite Internet programs and declaring “a star is born — Elon!”

While Trump did not touch on the specifics of Musk donating more than $130 million to Trump’s election efforts this year, the pair seem to agree that Musk will have a big impact in Trump’s second term.

After endorsing Trump in July, Musk quickly embraced the idea of creating a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) aimed at cutting $2 trillion or more from the federal budget, while Trump has touted Musk as so-called “Secretary of Cost Savings.”

They have both indicated that Musk is unlikely to take on an official role like Trump says Musk “doesn’t want to be in the cabinet” and Musk said “No salary, no title, no recognition is needed” for his services.

Musk said he doesn’t intend to stop weighing in on politics this election, as his Super Political Action Committee in America “is going to continue after this election and prepare for the midterms and any midterms.”

In an interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast released On Monday night, Musk said he hopes to “shrink (federal) agencies to be much smaller,” make sure they “stick to what Congress approved instead of all this other stuff” and “clear the decks” of unnecessary regulations and federal agencies, added if his task force removes “some regulation or agency that did something useful, we can put it back.”

What has Musk said he would do in a Trump administration?

In a row Tuesday and Wednesday posts on his X social media platform, Musk offered minimal information about what his role will be: He replied “I think so” to an AI-generated image of him speaking on a DOGE platform, he retweeted a photo that dubbed him the U.S. chief technology officer, said DOGE will be “so fired up,” responded with fire emojis in a post calling for the firing of Federal Trade Commission chief Lina Khan and Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler and responded in the affirmative to a post calling for “dismantling Washington as we know it.” Musk often heads with regulators in the Biden Administration. The Khan-led FTC struck X, then known as Twitter, with a $150 million fine and ordering restrictions on the social media company’s data collection practices for advertising, and the Gensler-led SEC fought with Musk over his use of Twitter in connection with his role at Tesla, dating back to a controversial tweet from 2018 in which Musk said he was securing the funding needed to take Tesla private.

How could Musk benefit from a Trump administration?

There are a number of pending lawsuits and government investigations against Musk and his companies, meaning he would likely enjoy the lighter regulatory climate floated by Trump. Among the legal and regulatory issues facing Musk are an appeal to reinstate his $50 billion bonus in Tesla stock that was struck down by a Delaware judge in January, an investigation into Tesla’s autonomous driving systems by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a reported Justice Department warning over America PAC’s $1 million handouts to certain swing-state voters. And Tesla, which accounts for more of Musk’s wealth than any of his other companies, could get a boost from Trump’s economic proposals, which would likely hurt their electric vehicle competitors, a benefit reflected in the stock’s massive rally on Wednesday (see below for more details).

When did Musk become a Trump ally?

Musk endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and said he voted for Joe Biden in 2020. His shift to the right coincided with his purchase of Twitter in 2022, and he said in June of that year he cast his first ever vote for a Republican candidate for former Texas Rep. Mayra Flores. In November, Musk said he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the presidential election, and eventually endorsed Trump in July after the failed assassination attempt on Trump, joining Trump on the campaign trail in the months that followed.

Chief critic

“I’m not sure how they got to that number,” said hedge fund manager to Trump adviser Scott Bessent, a potential pick to be Trump’s treasury secretary, Forbes told before the election, and questioned Musk’s goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal government’s annual budget. “But I look at the way he runs his companies. He drives them pretty well,” Bessent added.

Key background

Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla are both among the world’s most valuable companies, with aerospace giant SpaceX the second-largest private company in the world with a reported valuation of $210 billion and electric car company Tesla 10th largest public company with a market value of more than 900 billion dollars. Musk owns 42% of SpaceX and 13% of Tesla, while he also has controlling stakes in X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and generative AI startup xAI. South Africa-born Musk is by far the richest person in the world, with his net worth of around $280 billion, more than $60 billion more than the second-richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Key

The fruits of Musk’s potential personal benefit from a Trump administration were on display Wednesday, as shares in Tesla surged 14% to their highest level since last July, taking Musk’s fortune to $20 billion. “Musk’s big bet on Trump (is) a home run for Tesla,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. Trump’s proposal ending federal tax credits for electric vehicles “could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV environment,” Ives wrote to clients, adding heavily rates whether Chinese imports “would continue to push cheaper Chinese EVs from flooding the U.S. market over the coming years.”