Donald Trump’s return to the White Home may additionally show to be a win for considered one of his most seen supporters: Elon Musk.
The world’s richest man spent election night time in Florida with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort as returns got here in.
“The individuals of America gave @realDonaldTrump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” Mr Musk wrote on the social media platform X as Trump’s victory started to appear all however sure.
And at his victory speech on the Palm Seaside Conference Middle, Trump spent a number of minutes praising Mr Musk and recounting the profitable touchdown of a rocket manufactured by considered one of Mr Musk’s corporations, SpaceX.
Mr Musk threw his help behind the Republican virtually instantly after the assassination try on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.
As one of many president-elect’s most essential backers, the tech billionaire donated greater than $119m (£92m) to fund a Tremendous PAC aimed toward re-electing Trump.
He additionally spent the final weeks earlier than election day working a get-out-the-vote effort within the battleground states, which included a each day giveaway of $1m to voters in these states. The giveaway grew to become the topic of a authorized problem, although a judge later ruled they could go ahead.
After throwing his identify, cash, and platform behind Trump, Mr Musk has a lot to achieve from Trump’s re-election.
The president-elect has stated that in a second time period, he would invite Mr Musk into his administration to eradicate authorities waste.
Mr Musk has referred to the potential effort because the “Division of Authorities Effectivity,” or DOGE, the identify of a meme and cryptocurrency that he has popularised.
The businessman may additionally profit from Trump’s presidency by means of his possession of SpaceX, which already dominates the enterprise of sending authorities satellites to area.
With an in depth ally within the White Home, Mr Musk may search to additional capitalise on these authorities ties.
Mr Musk has criticised rivals together with Boeing for the construction of their authorities contracts, which he says disincentive ending tasks on funds and on time.
SpaceX has additionally moved into constructing spy satellites simply because the Pentagon and American spy businesses seem poised to take a position billions of {dollars} into them.
Mr Musk’s electrical car maker Tesla may in the meantime reap beneficial properties from an administration that Trump has stated can be outlined by “the bottom regulatory burden.”
Simply final month, the US company accountable for regulating highway security revealed it was probing Tesla’s self-driving software systems.
Mr Musk has additionally come beneath hearth for allegedly searching for to dam Tesla staff from unionising. The United Auto Staff filed unfair labour apply prices in opposition to each Trump and Musk after the 2 talked about Musk supposedly firing putting staff throughout a dialog on X.
Trump has additionally pledged to decrease taxes on companies and the rich.
That’s one other promise Mr Musk is probably going hoping he’ll maintain.
