Many conflicts of interest How powerful will Elon Musk become in Trump's White House?
Elon Musk threw his full weight behind Donald Trump during the election campaign - and became his close confidant. This closeness raises many questions about conflicts of interest.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Tech billionaire Elon Musk went all-in on a Donald Trump election victory - and won.
- The reward is political influence in Trump's White House.
- Trump held out the prospect of entrusting Musk with reducing government spending.
- The proximity to Trump raises many questions about conflicts of interest.
- For example, Musk's space company has contracts worth billions with NASA.
- At the same time, US authorities are investigating him.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk bet all his money on Donald Trump winning the election - and won. The reward is political influence in Trump's White House. There was a taste of this on the first day after the presidential election: Musk was present during the US President-elect's phone call with Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump held out the prospect of entrusting Musk with reducing government spending. However, the 53-year-old does not yet hold a government post - but was nevertheless present during the phone call. The Trump team attempted damage limitation via the Wall Street Journal: Musk's participation in the conversation had not been planned. He had simply come into the room when Trump and Selenskyj were talking. This raises a new question: Can the richest man in the world just walk in on the soon to be most powerful man in the world again?
Laughing Musk in Trump family photo
In fact, Musk has become firmly intertwined with Trump's inner circle in recent months. So much so that he can be seen holding one of his sons in a family photo of the Trumps after the election victory. The tech titan has done a lot to earn this place. Up until mid-October alone, he poured around 120 million dollars into the ex-president's election campaign, particularly in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania.
He also flooded his more than 200 million followers on the online platform X, which he owns, with daily calls to vote for Trump and scathing criticism of the Democratic opponent Kamala Harris. Musk particularly harped on the controversial topic of immigration. He spread the false claim that the Democrats were flying in migrants to turn the election. Even users who don't follow him directly saw pro-Trump posts about the "for you" vote wash up on their timelines.
Is Musk turning off the money tap to annoying authorities?
But in what direction could Musk steer Trump's policies? And how could the interests of his many companies play into this? After all, with Musk, Trump would be handing over control of government spending to someone who constantly complains loudly about regulatory hurdles.
What if Musk simply turned off the money spigot to the agencies he's upset with? When he took over Twitter, he simply fired half the staff. Could the government apparatus be in for a similar shakedown if he sticks to his usual approach?
Musk is not only the boss of electric car manufacturer Tesla and owner of the online platform that has since been renamed X by Twitter. He also runs the aerospace company SpaceX, among others. This means that the USA is already dependent on him: Only SpaceX has the rocket capacity to launch American satellites and astronauts into orbit on a large scale.
Musk's SpaceX (still) irreplaceable for US space travel
This is a billion-dollar business for SpaceX. And the debacle of competitor Boeing, whose new space capsule seemed too unsafe for NASA to fly astronauts back from the ISS space station, only cemented this dominance.
Musk is also the master of the Starlink satellite system with SpaceX. It is indispensable for Ukraine: its troops used it to communicate after the Russian invaders destroyed the telecommunications infrastructure. Musk's biography reveals that he single-handedly prevented a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet on the occupied Crimean peninsula - he refused to activate Starlink in the region.
Space rivalry between billionaires
However, there is another tech billionaire who wants to offer the US government an alternative to SpaceX: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. His space company Blue Origin is also developing rockets - and is also planning to compete with Starlink with the Kuiper satellite system.
Could Musk's proximity to power strengthen SpaceX's position for the future? Bezos, for his part, is keen not to upset Trump. He congratulated the president-elect almost euphorically - and shortly before the election, Bezos' newspaper "Washington Post" renounced an endorsement for Kamala Harris that had already been written. On the same day, Blue Origin boss Dave Limp met Trump. A coincidence, Bezos assured us.
Investigations against Tesla
Tesla could also do with a little less attention from regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating accidents involving the "Autopilot" driver assistance system for years. Just a few days ago, it became known that the NHTSA sees a problem with Tesla's "Autopilot" videos. They could falsely give drivers the impression that Teslas with the latest version of the system can steer themselves. However, even the latest expansion stage with the full-bodied name "Full Self-Driving" is only an assistance system in which the human at the wheel must remain in control at all times.
Free ride for Musk's robotaxi?
And Musk has big plans: he recently demonstrated a Tesla robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals. It is to go into production from 2026 and enable autonomous driving using only cameras - instead of the expensive laser radars that successful robotaxi companies such as Google rely on today. This would give the electric car manufacturer a considerable cost advantage over the competition.
Tesla wants to quickly build two million such vehicles per year, announced the tech billionaire, who is notorious for missing deadlines. But there are two problems with the big plans - and less pressure from the authorities could help with both. Firstly, experts are far from certain that reliable autonomous driving can only be achieved with cameras. And secondly, cars without steering wheels and pedals are currently only allowed on the roads in small numbers as experimental vehicles.
Vance links protection for Musk's X with Nato contribution
In an extraordinary intertwining of US politics and the private sector, Trump's Vice President-elect J.D. Vance linked American NATO contributions to the fact that no action is being taken against Musk's online platform X in the EU back in September. America must say that the Europeans should commit to freedom of speech so that there is further support for the defense alliance, Vance said in an interview with Youtuber Shawn Ryan. He was referring to the potential crackdown on misinformation and hate speech on online platforms under the new DSA digital law.
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