If Elon Musk joins the US authorities following a Donald Trump victory within the presidential election, he would be the newest in a succession of billionaire businesspeople to carry public workplace.
From the late Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and former New York Metropolis Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and former President Trump himself, the super-rich have lengthy held positions of energy in Washington, DC and throughout US state capitals.
With polls displaying Tuesday’s election on a knife edge, Musk is in severe competition to hitch Trump’s cupboard after the Republican candidate floated the concept of the tech billionaire serving as so-called “Secretary of Price Slicing”.
Since getting into politics after many years in the true property enterprise, Trump has displayed a penchant for drafting high-net-worth people from the personal sector.
Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump nominated 5 folks as Cupboard secretaries who had spent all or almost all of their careers within the enterprise world, together with Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos, and former World Wrestling Leisure CEO Linda McMahon.
In response to an evaluation by the Pew Analysis Centre, Trump’s first slate of Cupboard nominees had extra businesspeople with no public sector expertise than some other earlier than it.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has known as for drastic reductions in authorities spending, though he has supplied few specifics about the place he would direct cuts.
Throughout Trump’s Madison Sq. Backyard rally on Sunday, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX CEO stated the federal price range may very well be slashed by “not less than” $2 trillion.
“Your cash is being wasted, and the Division of Authorities Effectivity goes to repair that,” Musk advised Howard Lutnick, the chief government of Wall Road agency Cantor Fitzgerald and a member of Trump’s transition planning group, when requested how a lot he may “rip out” of the newest federal price range.
“We’re going to get the federal government off your again and out of your pocketbook.”
Such a discount in spending – equal to just about one-third of final yr’s federal price range of $6.75 trillion – would nearly definitely be inconceivable to attain with out steep cuts in areas that politicians throughout the aisle have been loath to the touch, together with social safety, healthcare, veterans’ advantages, and defence.
Musk himself has acknowledged that such a pointy lower in spending would inflict severe financial ache.
On Tuesday, he responded “sounds about proper” to a publish on X that predicted there can be “an preliminary extreme overreaction within the financial system” and “markets will tumble.”
SpaceX and Tesla didn’t reply to requests searching for remark from Musk.
Whereas politicians pledging to finish wasteful spending is hardly new, there is no such thing as a “exact parallel” to a businessman like Musk overseeing a division tasked with enhancing authorities effectivity, stated Bruce Schulman, a professor of historical past at Boston College.
Political candidates that touted their expertise in enterprise, from former President George W. Bush to presidential nominee Mitt Romney, usually had a observe document in public service earlier than searching for to enter the very best ranges of the federal authorities.
Authorities commissions geared toward eliminating waste and inefficiency – such because the Hoover Fee and the Nationwide Partnership for Reinventing Authorities led, respectively, by former President Herbert Hoover and Vice President Al Gore – have additionally typically been led by seasoned authorities officers.
Schulman stated whereas initiatives to eradicate waste have been endorsed at numerous instances by each Democrats and Republicans, they’ve been largely for “political present”.
“These efforts have had marginal results, and largely been for political present. However total, each the dimensions of the federal authorities in variety of workers and when it comes to spending have been flat for a very long time although the US inhabitants has elevated dramatically. The federal authorities is way leaner than it was within the Sixties/70s,” Schulman advised Al Jazeera.
John Pelissero, director of Santa Clara College’s Markkula Heart for Utilized Ethics, questioned Musk’s standing to carry a authorities place given his lack of expertise within the public sector.
“With none working expertise in authorities, one would possibly marvel how he may very well be certified to occupy a place, for instance, that focuses on authorities effectivity,” Pelissero advised Al Jazeera.
“It’s price noting that previous authorities effectivity or reform commissions have usually been led by a person who has earned public belief and has deep expertise in authorities.”
Whereas Musk has been lauded as a tech visionary within the personal sector, his enterprise observe document isn’t with out its stumbles and controversies.
Since his $44bn takeover of X in 2022, the social media platform’s worth has fallen about 80 p.c, based on a valuation by the funding large Constancy, largely because of advertisers leaving the platform over its loosening of content material moderation.
The Environmental Safety Company has accused SpaceX of polluting the realm round its Texas base, damaging a surrounding state park and federal wildlife refuge.
In September, the company fined SpaceX $148,378 over a chemical spill – a minuscule penalty for an organization of its measurement that Musk nonetheless branded as “foolish”.
A Cupboard place can be an attractive reward for Musk, who has emerged as one among Trump’s most vocal and highly effective supporters since July’s failed assassination try on the previous president.
Musk’s corporations maintain billions of {dollars} in contracts with authorities companies, elevating considerations that his elevation to the federal government would create doubtlessly enormous conflicts of curiosity.
SpaceX alone has obtained greater than $15bn in authorities contracts for launching rockets for NASA, satellites for the Pentagon, and ferrying US astronauts to the Worldwide House Station.
In February, the Wall Road Journal reported that the corporate was awarded a $1.8bn categorised authorities contract with an unnamed authorities company.
Tesla, which is going through regulatory scrutiny from quite a few authorities companies, stands to learn from doubtlessly looser regulatory enforcement throughout a pleasant Trump administration, in addition to tax cuts and subsidies.
X, in the meantime, supplies Musk an “outsized skill to affect authorities coverage and amplify his or Trump’s views/insurance policies in authorities”, Pelissero stated, including that Musk ought to promote the platform if he’s to enter authorities.
Musk’s affect has already been on full show within the presidential race.
The billionaire has poured not less than $118m into Trump’s marketing campaign by his America tremendous PAC, advocated vigorously for Trump on X – together with, at instances, by spreading the Republican candidate’s false claims of election fraud – and stumped with him on the marketing campaign path.
His efforts to advertise Trump have even gone so far as testing the bounds of election regulation.
On Monday, Philadelphia’s district legal professional filed a lawsuit requesting a judge to block Musk’s $1m daily giveaway for registered voters in battleground states, calling it an “unlawful lottery scheme”.
The transfer got here days after the US Justice Division despatched America tremendous PAC a letter warning that the lottery for voters who signal a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments of the US Structure might violate federal regulation.
Regardless of his showmanship and uncensored feedback, Musk is in some methods following a well-recognized playbook for US elites, stated Daniel Krcmaric, an affiliate professor of political science at Northwestern College in Chicago and the co-author of a 2023 research on billionaire politicians.
“All of those techniques are a part of a broader technique to make use of his unimaginable wealth to sway – utilizing casual means – the US presidential election in his most well-liked path,” Krcmaric advised Al Jazeera.
It isn’t uncommon for the ultra-wealthy to throw their assets behind political candidates, whether or not Republican or Democratic, or exert affect over the federal government by their enterprise pursuits, comparable to within the case of John Pierpont Morgan – aka J.P. Morgan – who functioned as a de facto central banker on the flip of the twentieth century.
Although removed from exceptional, it’s much less frequent for them to hunt workplace.
Analysing information from the Forbes International 2000 listing of billionaires, Krcmaric’s research discovered that 11 p.c of billionaires worldwide have both sought or held formal public workplace.
Transitioning from enterprise to politics is way extra frequent in autocracies than democracies, based on the research, with 29 p.c of billionaires searching for or holding workplace within the former, in contrast with 5 p.c within the latter.
Worldwide, the listing of billionaire businessmen-turned-politicians contains former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former Australian legislator Clive Palmer.
The US has a decrease fee of political participation by billionaires than common, at simply 3.7 p.c, as a result of many different avenues of affect accessible to them, based on Krcmaric, together with bankrolling campaigns and advocacy teams.
Through the present US presidential election cycle, the 50 greatest donors have given greater than $2.5bn to affect political races and causes – about two-thirds of which favoured Republicans and conservative-aligned causes.
Whereas Musk has solely begun explicitly supporting Trump lately after years of expressing assist for Democrats, he has publicly recognized with conservative and right-wing causes since not less than 2022, the yr he purchased Twitter – as X was then identified – in a hostile takeover.
Quickly after shopping for the platform that October, Musk reinstated the accounts of quite a few right-leaning figures who had been banned for inflammatory posts or spreading misinformation, together with Trump, self-described “misogynist” influencer Andrew Tate, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, and US legislator Marjorie Taylor Inexperienced.
At across the similar time, Musk started utilizing his X account to concern warnings about the way forward for Western civilisation and the affect of the “woke thoughts virus”, referring to what critics say is left-wing politics’ assist of censorship and obsession with race, gender and sexual identification.
“It is a battle for the way forward for civilization. If free speech is misplaced even in America, tyranny is all that lies forward,” Musk stated in a publish on November 29.
As a self-described “free-speech absolutist”, Musk additionally dramatically curtailed content material moderation on X and scrapped the platform’s “verified” characteristic for high-profile figures comparable to celebrities and politicians.
The adjustments drew criticism from liberal activists and misinformation students, who warned that they’d result in an increase in hate speech and the impersonation of public figures.
Musk’s engagement with fringe figures, comparable to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, on the platform was additionally held up by critics as proof of a pointy flip to the appropriate.
Musk additionally started quietly donating tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to conservative causes within the US, channelling cash to the PAC Residents for Sanity and the presidential marketing campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, The Wall Road Journal reported final month.
In July, Musk introduced his intention to maneuver the headquarters of X and SpaceX from California to Texas to protest in opposition to a regulation that bans faculties from forcing lecturers to inform mother and father when their baby adjustments their gender identification.
Musk’s flip to the appropriate has additionally been on show in his expressed views about worldwide affairs, together with his promotion of a “plan for peace” in Ukraine that critics say intently aligned with the Kremlin’s speaking factors on the battle.
Final week, the Wall Road Journal (WSJ) reported that Musk had been in common contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since October 2022, quoting present and former US, European and Russian officers.
Whereas lots of the particulars of the discussions have been unknown, Putin reportedly requested Musk to chorus from activating his Starlink satellite tv for pc web service over Taiwan as a favour to his ally, Chinese language chief Xi Jinping, the newspaper stated, quoting a former Russian intelligence officer.
Xi, who has pledged to “reunify” democratic Taiwan with the Chinese language mainland by pressure, if obligatory, would seemingly lower Taiwan’s communication traces within the occasion of an invasion or blockade, based on safety analysts.
Musk didn’t reply to WSJ’s request for touch upon contact with Putin, the newspaper stated, though he later mocked the article on X with out denying its claims.
Whatever the consequence of the election, Musk will proceed to exert monumental affect, whether or not from the sidelines or from throughout the White Home, stated H.W. Manufacturers, a professor on the College of Texas at Austin.
“Social media has given personal people avenues to movie star that didn’t exist earlier than. Trump and Musk are good examples,” Manufacturers advised Al Jazeera.
“Trump had the extra benefit of his tv present, however he outflanked common Republicans in 2016 in a method that might have been almost inconceivable in earlier generations.”
