Elon Musk has made it clear that he would not like Joe Biden. However since Musk has formally endorsed and reportedly financially assist Donald Trump is on this yr’s presidential marketing campaign, Biden is returning the favor. The president is now instantly campaigning for Musk — and different well-known and rich Silicon Valley enterprise capitalists — to assist Trump’s bid.
“I am sick,” Biden says wrote on Social community Masks X on Wednesday after testing constructive on COVID earlier than revealing the ruse in a follow-up put up: “Elon Musk and his wealthy pals try to purchase this election.”
Hours earlier, the Biden marketing campaign despatched fundraising textual content that mentioned “the richest man on this planet is now on Workforce MAGA” and accused Musk of “utilizing his wealth to attempt to management our democracy.”
That Biden has made Musk the middle of his marketing campaign is a notable escalation on condition that he has spent a lot of his presidency seemingly pretending the billionaire would not exist — corresponding to when he held a celebrated “Electrical Car Summit” in 2021 to which Tesla wasn’t invited; or when he mentioned that Detroit, not Tesla, “is the world chief in electrical automobile manufacturing.”
Campaigning towards Musk’s involvement is dangerous given the billionaire’s affect on Silicon Valley and the tech business as an entire. Silicon Valley’s Richest Folks’s Strip again an excellent PAC to which Musk reportedly contributes, together with Sequoia Capital companions Sean Maguire and Doug Leone. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz introduced that they would offer monetary assist to Trump’s marketing campaign largely due to the presidential candidate’s assist for cryptocurrency, his stance on AI, and Biden’s proposal to tax unrealized capital features. Musk confidant David Sachs has led the cost to drum up much more assist for Trump, not simply on X however in the actual world as he carried out on stage this week on the Republican Nationwide Conference.
After all, with the Biden marketing campaign. threatenedmaybe he sees little draw back to highlighting Musk’s involvement. In any case, Musk, Sacks, and different influential gamers like Peter Thiel have been already animated sufficient push Trump to select J.D. Vance as his working mate earlier than Biden made the Tesla CEO the middle of his marketing campaign. And the tremendous PAC many of those persons are pouring cash into was shaped in June.
It hardly issues whether or not Biden snubbed Musk due to his anti-union stance or his assist for far-right insurance policies. Being ignored clearly bothered Musk — he brings This up A loads of.
Musk has engaged with the Trump administration in a number of methods, together with serving on his financial advisory board, however he has by no means overtly endorsed him as a candidate.
In the meantime, Musk has benefited materially from and through Biden’s presidency. The Inflation Discount Act has boosted Tesla (and its battery accomplice Panasonic) as much as 41 billion {dollars} in credit by 2032. Tesla hit its highest valuation ever in 2021 amid a broader wave of EV optimism (and after Hertz pledged massive wholesale buy Musk’s vehicles). SpaceX and its Starlink satellite tv for pc enterprise have repeatedly gained protection and different authorities contracts. And he finally met Biden on the White Home in September 2023.
However his firms additionally face a number of federal investigations, a few of which started throughout Biden’s presidency. He’s clearly extra ideologically aligned with Trump, and there’s motive to imagine his firms will proceed to profit from one other trump presidency.
Biden’s embrace of anti-Masks rhetoric is already serving to him financially, Biden marketing campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg mentioned Thursday afternoon wrote on X {that a} put up calling out “Musk and his wealthy pals” was the marketing campaign’s “second-best social put up” in additional than a yr.