 "Elon Musk went all in on Trump before the election – giving $75 million to Trump’s Political Action Committee and another $120m million to his own America PAC. AP")
Elon Musk seemingly has a new home – Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The owner of X and the richest man on Earth seems to have taken up permanent residence in Donald Trump’s club ever since election night.
Some are now calling Musk ‘the guest who wouldn’t leave.’
Let’s take a closer look:
‘A star is born’
It all began with Musk spending election night with Trump, as per The New York Times.
Trump in his victory speech thanked Musk – who has emerged as one of his biggest backers and major funders.
Musk went all in on Trump before the election – giving $75 million to Trump’s Political Action Committee and another $120m million to his own America PAC.
Musk’s super PAC spent around $200 million to help elect Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the group’s spending, funding an effort that set a new standard for how billionaires can influence elections.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO provided the vast majority of the money to America PAC, which focused on low-propensity and first-time voters, according to the person, who was not authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The billionaire businessman became one of Trump’s highest-profile surrogates in the final months of the campaign, often joining the former president onstage. His support gave Trump a clear opening into the universe of younger men who look up to Musk.
Trump also benefited from Musk’s ownership of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and the company’s work to end many of the rules that hampered Trump before he was kicked off in 2021. Like many conservatives, Musk is a fierce critic of social media efforts to counter disinformation, arguing that those efforts amount to pro-government censorship.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsMusk also held a $1 million giveaway in Pennsylvania for swing voters.
Trump, in turn, has recognised Musk’s contributions.
“We have a new star. A star is born: Elon,” Trump said in his victory speech.
“He’s an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight. You know, he spent two weeks in Philadelphia, in different parts of Pennsylvania, campaigning.”
“We have to protect our geniuses, we don’t have that many of them,” Trump added.
Musk and Mar-a-Lago
As per CNN, Musk has been hanging out at Trump’s Palm Beach resort nearly every day since the election.
Not only has Musk been dining with Trump at his table on the patio of Mar-a-Lago, he has also been present when Trump has taken phone calls from world leaders.
It has been widely reported that Musk joined Trump’s call with Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Sources told the outlet Musk has also given Trump his inputs on whom he would prefer for certain jobs within the next administration.
Musk is also close to Trump’s transition co-chair, Howard Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.
Though Musk and Trump had mused about the billionaire possibly taking on a role at the head of a task efficiency commission, that development is looking unlikely at the moment.
“While Musk himself is still not expected to take any kind of formal position, given how complicated it would be with his companies, what’s becoming clearer tonight is that he doesn’t really need to — with one source telling me Musk is having just as much influence from the outside,” CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins was quoted as saying by The Independent.
Tech journalist Kara Swisher told CNN that Musk “definitely inserts himself all the time; that’s his style. That’s why he’s just suddenly shown up there like the guest that wouldn’t leave,” she remarked.
“I’ve heard from Trump people calling me saying ‘oh wow, this is odd.’ And I’m like yeah it is, you’ll see much more of it,” Swisher added.
She said Musk probably won’t go “until Trump throws him out. Which could happen, because they’re both really strong personalities who like to be at the centre of attention.”
“There can be only one narcissist as head of the country, and that’s Donald Trump,” Swisher added. Trump goes through people like tissues, essentially. And even if it’s Musk, they’re going to clash at some point.”
With inputs from agencies