A month after Elon Musk pulled off the groundbreaking landing of a reusable rocket back on his launchpad, the billionaire will again enter uncharted territory but in a different one. The founder of SpaceX is now about to find out whether the biggest rocket he ever launched — the one that helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency — will return as smoothly as a starship or burn up.
Musk, whose growing political apparatus has already proven his mettle, is expected to be more than just an aide in the White House and the most influential member of the Trump 2.0 inner circle. Trump has given him the official role of cutting government spending — and with it the power to influence policy and the federal agencies that oversee his vast empire of companies.
“He’s a character. He’s a special guy. He’s a super genius,” Trump said of Musk as he addressed his supporters overnight. “We have to protect our talent. We don’t have a lot of them.”
Already, shares in Tesla are rising. The stock climbed as much as 15% in early US trading as investors looked to cash in on Trump’s return to the White House. Musk posted a chart on Wednesday that he said showed record usage of X, his social network.
Trump said Musk’s Starlink satellite service helped save “a lot of lives” during Hurricane Helen, which devastated the southeastern US last month. “I told Elon in North Carolina they needed it really badly. Can you get it? He had it there so fast; it was unbelievable! It saved a lot of lives,” Trump told his supporters.
Calling Musk a “wonderful man,” Trump added, “We have a new star… a star is born – Elon!… He does what only Elon can do. No Russia, no China, no America except him. That’s why I love you , Elon.”
Almost bidding to outdo the president-elect’s good praise, the tech billionaire posted on X: “Sure it was a lot of pressure, but it pales in comparison to President @real-DonaldTrump, who they tried to kill twice, bankrupt and. Imprisoned for eternity.”
The world’s richest man, who spent more than $130 million on Trump and down-ballot Republicans in competitive House races, said, “America is a nation of builders. Soon, you’ll be free to build. The future will be fantastic.”
Earlier in the day, as the results began to trickle in, Musk led a meme brigade on social media with posts ranging from acerbic to straight-up jokes. He reused his photo from 2022 when he visited the headquarters of what was then Twitter. This time too he gave the same caption, ‘Let the sink in’ but the background setting was inside the White House.
Over the past few months, Musk has been Trump’s most aggressive surrogate. He propped Trump up on the X, held town halls in the key state of Pennsylvania and appeared at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally with higher billing than his own Republican running mate — JD Vance.
On Election Day, Musk voted in Texas and then flew on his private jet to Florida to watch Trump return to Mar-a-Lago with his family.
“Musk is new to politics, but it means a lot for a billionaire and tech mogul to go all in for President Trump,” said Jondavid Longo, Pennsylvania state director of Early Vote Action, an organization dedicated to registering Republican voters. Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania was key to his victory, helping him flip battleground states he lost in 2020 but won in his first run for president in 2016. Musk donated $1 million to the group.
Kasturi could benefit greatly financially from the incoming administration. He oversees an empire of six companies, many of which are heavily entangled with the US federal government. SpaceX has become an increasingly important partner for NASA and the US Department of Defense, with contracts worth billions. Tesla has staked its financial future on autonomous robotaxis, a risky pursuit that faces serious regulatory hurdles. X remains very influential.
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