Elon Musk has made it clear he doesn’t like Joe Biden. However since Musk formally endorsed and is reportedly financially backing Donald Trump on this 12 months’s presidential marketing campaign, Biden is returning the favor. The president is now immediately campaigning on Musk — and different high-profile and rich Silicon Valley VCs — supporting Trump’s bid.
“I’m sick,” Biden wrote on Musk’s social media web site X on Wednesday after testing constructive for Covid, earlier than revealing a bait-and-switch within the subsequent publish: “of Elon Musk and his wealthy buddies making an attempt to purchase this election.”
Hours earlier, Biden’s marketing campaign despatched out a fundraising textual content saying that “the richest individual on the planet is now on Crew MAGA” and accused Musk of “utilizing his fortune to attempt to management our democracy.”
Biden centering Musk in his marketing campaign is a notable escalation, contemplating he spent most of his presidency seemingly pretending the billionaire didn’t exist – like when he famously held an “EV Summit” in 2021 the place Tesla wasn’t invited; Or when he mentioned that Detroit — not Tesla — was “main the world in electrical autos.”
Campaigning towards Musk’s involvement is a raffle given the billionaire’s sway over Silicon Valley and the tech trade, generally. A swath of Silicon Valley’s richest are backing the tremendous PAC Musk is reportedly contributing to, together with Sequoia Capital companions Shaun Maguire and Doug Leone. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz introduced they are going to financially assist Trump’s marketing campaign largely as a result of presidential candidate’s assist for crypto, stance on AI in addition to Biden’s proposal to tax unrealized capital positive factors. Musk confidant David Sacks has been main the cost to drum up much more assist for Trump, not simply on X but additionally in the true world, as he spoke on stage this week on the Republican Nationwide Conference.
After all, with Biden’s marketing campaign below risk, it’s potential he could not see a lot draw back to placing a highlight on Musk’s involvement. In any case, Musk, Sacks and different energy gamers like Peter Thiel had been already animated sufficient to push Trump to select JD Vance as his vice presidential nominee earlier than Biden made the Tesla CEO a spotlight of his campaigning. And the tremendous PAC many of those individuals are piling cash into was shaped in June.
Whether or not Biden slighted Musk due to his anti-union stance, or his embrace of far-right insurance policies, virtually doesn’t matter. Being ignored clearly bothered Musk – he brings it up a lot.
Musk interacted with the Trump administration in just a few methods, together with serving on his financial advisory council, however he had by no means outright supported him as a candidate.
In the meantime, Musk has benefitted materially from and through Biden’s presidency. The Inflation Discount Act set Tesla (and its battery associate Panasonic) up to $41 billion in credit by 2032. Tesla hit its highest valuation ever in 2021 amid the broader wave of EV optimism. (and after Hertz promised a giant bulk buy of Musk’s vehicles). SpaceX and its satellite tv for pc enterprise Starlink has been a repeat winner of protection and different authorities contracts. And he did in the end find yourself assembly with Biden on the White Home in September 2023.
However his corporations are additionally dealing with a number of federal investigations, a few of which began throughout Biden’s presidency. He’s clearly extra ideologically aligned with Trump, and there are causes to imagine his corporations would proceed to profit from one other Trump presidency.
Biden embracing anti-Musk rhetoric because of this is already serving to him financially: On Thursday afternoon, Biden marketing campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg wrote on X that the publish calling out “Musk and his wealthy buddies” was “the second finest elevating social publish” for the marketing campaign in additional than a 12 months.
