Elon Musk spent $130 million to help elect Trump, and Tesla stock jumped the day after Trump won, making Elon $25 billion richer on paper.
That’s according to Barrons, a weekly investing magazine, which reported those numbers in its November 11, 2024, print edition at page 15.
Stock gains aside, Musk certainly will profit from the outcome. His space company is a major NASA contractor. And Trump is no friend of electric cars, so Musk may be buying protection for Tesla — and perhaps protectionist tariffs to eliminate competition from imported cars.
But it may be a bridge too far to say Musk bought himself a president. The Harris campaign was well-funded, and Trump won because of forces much larger than campaign funding, so it’s debatable whether Musk’s money made any difference. And Trump dances to his own tune; Musk is more follower than pied piper.
Musk may simply have spent $130 million to make himself feel better. Supporting a fellow rightwing jerk surely was a feel-good for him, something that would make him all warm and fuzzy inside. But it’s far more likely he considers it an investment that will pay fat dividends. As noted above, it already has.
The $2,500 campaign donation limit is still in place. But that only applies to donations directly to campaigns. The Supreme Court has decided that people can independently spend unlimited amounts of money to elect their preferred candidate, either themselves or through third parties like political action committees (PACs). If I remember correctly, Musk established his own PAC, so his spending falls in the first category.
Of course, the only people who can do that are those with unlimited amounts of money. Musk is one of those. His $130 million is a drop in the bucket of his total wealth, but for us little people looking up, it amounts to 5.2 million citizens each giving $25 to a candidate. Of course, that refers to Democratic candidates, because the Republican Party doesn’t run campaigns on a slew of $25 donations.
For one thing, they’re not that popular, and many of the “little people” who do support them don’t have $25 to spare. But the GOP doesn’t need those folks, because it has oligarchs like Musk willing to open their wallets for Republican candidates.
By the way, do you remember Trump saying way back in 2016 that he wouldn’t be beholden to rich donors, because he was rich himself and would pay for his own campaign? Maybe you don’t remember it — after all, that was a long time ago — but I do. It was, like everything issuing from Trump’s mouth, b.s. We now know Trump doesn’t pay for anything, not even his own legal bills. And his campaigns, all three of them, have left a trail of unpaid bills for venue rentals and police services.
This was predictable from the beginning, given his numerous business bankruptcies and the countless contractors, suppliers, and vendors he’s stiffed over the years. Musk obviously is betting he’s too important, and his donation was too big, for Trump to stiff him, too.
But wait a minute, let’s think about this. Trump probably won’t run again in 2028, not necessarily because of the 22nd Amendment, but because he will age out of politics (and perhaps from this world) by then. So what does Musk have that Trump wants? Right now, nothing. What does Trump have to lose by screwing Musk like he’s screwed everyone else? Nothing.
It would serve Musk right, and I wouldn’t feel sorry for him. But there’s no need to. He’s already laughing all the way to the bank. If Musk cares about nothing else besides money, he’s already won big.