Musk's bold move in backing Trump paid off and how

During his victory speech last Wednesday, supporters screamed Elon Musk's name as US President-elect Donald Trump stood onstage at his Mar-aLago resort, giving his winning speech.

- Shweta Taneja

"A star is born - Elon!" acknowledged Trump. He gushed about the tech tycoon, saying "Only Elon can do this. He's a special guy.

He's a super-genius. That's why I love you Elon." The same day, Tesla's shares rose by a whopping 15% adding about $25 billion to the fortunes of Elon Musk, the legendary tech tycoon who is the CEO of the electric vehicle maker. As Wall Street showed its confidence, the richest person on earth was busy posting a cheeky collage of himself in the White House, carrying a sink with the words 'Let that sink in', itself a play of what he'd done when he was close to finalising the deal to buy Twitter. He became not only the richest man in the world last Wednesday, but, more importantly, he also became the most powerful civilian in America.

Standing beside Trump

As an immigrant, Elon Musk cannot stand for presidential election in the US, so he has done the next best thing. In July, Elon Musk publicly supported Donald Trump, bringing with him at least $130 million in a pro-Trump campaign effort and more importantly X, which quickly become a catch-all for all Republican conservative conversations without censorship, and proved to be more important and powerful than Fox News for this election. What he also brought was his reputation as a successful businessman and time. He spent two weeks actively campaigning in the swing state of Pennsylvania, rousing young men, and gamifying voting. The pro-Trump political group that Musk formed, America PAC, offered registered voters in Pennsylvania $100 to sign petitions and a $1 million voter sweepstake.