The wealthiest man on the planet is pumping tens of millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s campaign. He owns an influential social media company where he embraces right-wing influencers and conspiracy theories now dominating the platform. He has business interests with China and Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s regime while his companies receive billions of dollars in US government contracts.
And if Trump is elected, he might steer how the American government spends its money.
Elon Musk wields enormous, unprecedented influence in the 2024 presidential election. He has a powerful megaphone to his 203 million followers on X, earns priceless media coverage and is backing a Republican nominee who promises to put him in charge of gutting federal agencies and cutting trillions of dollars from the federal budget.
Musk — a man with a net worth of more than $200 billion who wants to accelerate the human population of other planets — has predicted and welcomed economic “hardship” and a market crashif …