With his posts on X and financial contributions, Elon Musk is showing unwavering support for Donald Trump in the November presidential election. But this proximity could extend beyond the campaign if the former American president returns to the White House.
The richest man in the world has a growing place in Donald Trump’s campaign, at whose service he puts his personal X account, followed by nearly 200 million people.
Following the alleged assassination attempt on the Republican candidate on Sunday, Elon Musk posted a post questioning why no one had tried to kill President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, before deleting it.
The boss of Tesla, SpaceX and the social network X also helped to spread the theory – denied by the authorities – that Haitian migrants in Ohio were stealing pets to eat them.
But his influence doesn’t stop there. The two men agreed that Musk would be tasked by the former president, if he is elected, with conducting an audit of the federal government with a view to “making recommendations for drastic reforms.”
Donald Trump considers Elon Musk the “best cost-cutter.” After buying Twitter in late 2022 and renaming it X, the billionaire fired 75% of employees, keeping only those who agreed to comply with his ruthless management style.
Reduce the number of civil servants
These departures decimated the teams fighting against the spread of disinformation. Since then, the platform has been criticized for its laxity in this area and accused of relaying the theses of the radical right, which has pushed many advertisers to leave it.
According to the New York Timesthe two billionaires regularly discuss Elon Musk’s conception of labor relations, which Donald Trump hopes to apply to the federal administration.
When asked in the podcast All-In While he was considering cutting the number of federal workers by 5% annually — or about 150,000 people — Musk said he thought it would be necessary to cut “more than that.”
He added that he would “get assassinated” if he was more specific, but still said that many people would have to change jobs: “There will be a frightening number of disgruntled workers, former civil servants.”
But experts believe that the entrepreneur overestimates his room for maneuver and influence.
In the United States, cuts in the civil service workforce depend on Congress, which passes the federal budget.
“Our system does not allow any position or individual to have such a concentration of power that they can rule by diktat as Musk can do at X, Tesla or SpaceX,” notes Casey Burgat, a professor at the University of Washington.
Conflicts of interest
Others, however, fear that Donald Trump would override many rules if elected, especially with a conservative-majority Supreme Court giving final approval to laws.
As president, he significantly reshaped the court, which recently made several decisions that increased the power of the head of state and his immunity.
Donald Trump could decide to “do whatever he wants and let somebody bring a case to the Supreme Court, which has been pretty favorable to him on executive power issues,” observes Richard Barton, an assistant professor at Syracuse University.
Neither Elon Musk nor Donald Trump seem to be worried about the risk of a conflict of interest, which is nevertheless obvious to many observers.
The companies in the first group all have ties to the federal government, whether it’s SpaceX as a supplier to NASA, or Tesla, which is subject to strict regulations.
Donald Trump, for his part, has a history of appointing family members to high government positions and has often been accused of mixing his personal interests as a businessman with his political role.
But for the rules on conflicts of interest to be respected, Congress must show political will, which was not the case during Donald Trump’s first term, stresses Mr. Burgat, according to whom “there is no referee to call fouls in this matter.”