Elon Musk’s apparent influence over Trump is drawing conflict-of-interest accusations

Elon Musk is a seemingly constant presence at Donald Trump’s side, whether sitting in on the U.S. president-elect’s meetings with world leaders, helping vet cabinet picks or dancing to YMCA with him on New Year’s Eve.

The world’s richest man has also directly intervened on specific government policies. In a single week last month, he successfully cajoled Republican members of Congress to kill a government funding bill and sparked an internecine fight among Mr. Trump’s supporters over U.S. visas for high-skilled workers.

Mr. Musk’s apparent influence over the returning president – whom he spent more than US$250-million helping get elected – is drawing conflict-of-interest accusations, given that his corporate empire is heavily dependent on government money and favourable regulations.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer’s entry into the presidential race was abrupt. In March of last year, he said he did not plan to donate to any candidate. But by July, he had set up his own campaign group, America PAC, and started helping Mr. Trump.

After November’s victory, Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Musk co-leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency, an outside task force charged with proposing cost-cutting ideas.

“I certainly can’t think of another example that rises to the level of financial involvement of a single individual influencing an election,” said Erin Chlopak of Campaign Legal Center, a Washington watchdog that advocates tougher enforcement of campaign finance laws.

Mr. Musk benefited from a Federal Election Commission decision that relaxed campaign finance rules, she said. Under the opinion, issued last year, outside super political action committees such as Mr. Musk’s are now allowed to co-ordinate with political campaigns on some activities. This allowed the Republican Party to outsource much of its ground game to America PAC.

“He stands to reap personal financial benefits from the influence he has displayed in this administration and this election,” Ms. Chlopak said.

Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, for instance, has received billions of dollars worth of contracts from the U.S. federal government, including NASA and the Department of Defence, over the years.

His electric-vehicle company, Tesla, could gain or lose depending on a suite of government decisions. Mr. Musk has said he supports ending President Joe Biden’s EV tax credit because it would be worse for Tesla’s competitors than it would for the company, thereby giving it a relative advantage in market share.

How hard Mr. Trump chooses to go on China could affect Tesla’s investments in the country, including a factory in Shanghai.

After Mr. Musk used his following on X, the social-media platform he owns, to pressure the GOP caucus to tank a funding bill last month, Democrats accused him of doing so to stop provisions in the legislation that would have limited investments by Americans in China.

“He’s been bending over backwards to ingratiate himself with Chinese leaders,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern wrote on X. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said Mr. Musk’s power over the budgeting process showed the U.S. was in danger of becoming an “oligarchy.”

Mr. Musk, for his part, said he opposed the bill because it contained too many spending items. Its demise nearly caused a government shutdown before Republican leaders cobbled together a replacement version that included less spending and killed the China investment restrictions.

Within days, Mr. Musk had taken flak from the opposite end of the political spectrum. In a series of posts on X, he defended the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies, including tech firms, to hire specialized workers from other countries. Some of Mr. Trump’s most nationalistic supporters in the MAGA movement oppose the program because they argue those jobs should go to native-born Americans.

Mr. Musk is himself an immigrant who once used an H-1B visa; he grew up in South Africa and lived in Canada before moving to the U.S. He said the visa program is necessary because there is a “shortage of excellent engineering talent” in Silicon Valley and accused H-1B’s opponents of “racism.”

Some of the president-elect’s other most vocal supporters weighed in to attack Mr. Musk. On his War Room podcast, Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, warned Mr. Musk that the MAGA movement is “gonna rip your face off” if he keeps pushing H1-B.

This isn’t the only area in which Mr. Musk is out of step with MAGA. Mr. Trump, for instance, has denied or downplayed climate change and mocked electric cars. Mr. Musk has affirmed himself as “pro-environment” and also backs a transition to solar power.

Brendan Glavin of Open Secrets, a non-profit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying, said recent U.S. history is replete with examples of the wealthy trying to influence politicians. But previous attempts have tended to either be more discreet than Mr. Musk’s, or focused on pushing broad policy goals rather than attempting to dictate specific decisions.

“The unprecedented part is the public nature,” of how Mr. Musk is working with Mr. Trump, Mr. Glavin said. “We’d be naïve to think that campaign donors haven’t in the past had a great level of influence on policy. But it’s usually done in a more subtle way. We may now see other donors being more bold about making demands.”

Mr. Musk himself appears to have become bolder in recent weeks, seeking to extend his political influence beyond the U.S.’s borders. In an op-ed for German newspaper Die Welt, he endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany party in that country’s February election.

He also used his X account last week to back Tommy Robinson, a British anti-Islam activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court. Mr. Musk tweeted that Mr. Robinson “should be freed” and British officials “should take his place in that cell.”

Tech barons Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Sam Altman of OpenAI, meanwhile, are all following Mr. Musk’s lead in financially backing the Trump administration. Each is chipping in US$1-million to help pay for Mr. Trump’s inauguration celebrations.

The president-elect is set to take office on Jan. 20, and it remains to be seen how long his relationship with Mr. Musk can last. Mr. Trump has a history of jettisoning his loudest advisers, Mr. Bannon among them.

So far, however, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk appear joined at the hip. Mr. Musk has even lived at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida estate, since election night. The New York Times reported last week that he has been renting a US$2,000-a-night cottage on the property.

Video of the mansion’s New Year’s Eve party showed the tech billionaire tapping away at his phone, while Mr. Trump danced to the Village People classic that has become his signature song. Eventually, Mr. Musk slipped the device in the pocket of his dinner jacket, stood up and mimed the dance moves himself.