How Trump’s presidency could benefit the Tesla boss

Donald Trump’s return to the White House also looks set to be a win for one of his most visible supporters: Elon Musk.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, spent election night with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“The people of America gave @realDonaldTrump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” Mr Musk wrote on the social media platform X, which he owns.

Trump also singled-out Mr Musk in his victory speech, spending several minutes praising his rocket firm, Space X.

Mr Musk’s association with the president-elect also boosted the share price of his electric car maker Tesla – and, with it, his net worth, which now stands at an estimated $290bn.

Mr Musk threw his support behind the Republican almost immediately after the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.

He had previously described himself as “politically moderate”, but said in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential Election that he felt no choice but to support Trump as the Republican candidate.

He has frequently voiced concerns over the Biden administration’s approach to immigration and the economy, and claimed free speech would be at risk with another Democrat presidency.

As one of the president-elect’s most important backers, the tech billionaire donated more than $119m (£92m) to fund a Super PAC aimed at re-electing Trump.

He also spent the last weeks before election day running a get-out-the-vote effort in the battleground states, which included a daily giveaway of $1m to voters in those states.

The giveaway became the subject of a legal challenge, though a judge later ruled they could go ahead.

After throwing his name, money, and platform behind Trump, Mr Musk has plenty to gain from Trump’s re-election.

The president-elect has said that in a second term, he would invite Mr Musk into his administration to eliminate government waste.

Mr Musk has referred to the potential effort as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, the name of a meme and cryptocurrency that he has popularised.

The businessman could also benefit from Trump’s presidency through his ownership of SpaceX, which already dominates the business of sending government satellites to space.

With a close ally in the White House, Mr Musk could seek to further capitalise on those government ties.

Mr Musk has criticised rivals including Boeing for the structure of their government contracts, which he says disincentive finishing projects on budget and on time.

SpaceX has also moved into building spy satellites just as the Pentagon and American spy agencies appear poised to invest billions of dollars into them.

Tesla could meanwhile reap gains from an administration that Trump has said would be defined by “the lowest regulatory burden.”

Tesla’s share price jumped by more than 12% on Wednesday following news of Trump’s victory.

Just last month, the US agency in charge of regulating road safety revealed it was probing Tesla’s self-driving software systems.

Mr Musk has also come under fire for allegedly seeking to block Tesla workers from unionising. The United Auto Workers filed unfair labour practice charges against both Trump and Musk after the two talked about Musk supposedly firing striking workers during a conversation on X.

Trump has also pledged to lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

That’s another promise Mr Musk is likely hoping he will keep.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice-weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.