'It's quid pro quo' Now Musk will expect payback - big time

Donald Trump owes his decisive 2024 presidential victory in no small part to the enthusiastic support of the world's richest man.

- Mack DeGeurin

In the months leading up to the election, Elon Musk put his full weight behind the Maga movement, backed Trump on podcasts and used his influence over X to shape political discourse. Musk's America political action committee (Pac) injected nearly $120m (£92m) into the campaign.

Now Trump is in a position to return the favour. Speaking to reporters last month, he said he would appoint Musk as "secretary of cost-cutting". Musk, for his part, has joked he would be interested in serving as head of the "Department of Government Efficiency" (Doge) with a stated goal of reducing government spending by $2tn.

Practically speaking, experts say those cost cuts could result in deregulation and policy changes that would directly impact Musk's universe of companies, particularly Tesla, SpaceX, X and Neuralink.

"We've seen lobbying efforts, we've seen Super Pacs, but this is a different level we've never seen before," said Gita Johar, a professor at Columbia Business School. "There will be some quid pro quo where he [Musk] will benefit." She added: "'Conflict of interest' seems rather quaint."

Tesla
Tesla is already reaping the benefits of a second Trump administration. On Wednesday, hours after the Associated Press called the presidential race for Trump, the electric vehicle company's stock shot up 13% to a 52-week high. By the end of the week, Tesla reached $1tn in market capitalisation, its highest valuation in two years. Musk's own fortune shot up $26bn.