Political influence grows

Musk already spoke to Selenskyj on the phone with Trump

Elon Musk at an election rally for Donald Trump

(Bild: AFP)

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has placed all his bets on Donald Trump winning the election - and won. The reward is political influence in Trump's White House. There was a taste of this the day after the presidential election: Musk was present during a phone call between the US president-elect and Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Trump held out the prospect of entrusting Musk with reducing government spending. However, the 53-year-old does not yet hold a government post - but was nevertheless present during the phone call. The Trump team attempted damage limitation via the Wall Street Journal: Musk's participation in the conversation had not been planned. He had simply come into the room when Trump and Selenskyj were talking. This raises a new question: Can the richest man in the world just walk in on the soon to be most powerful man in the world again?

In fact, Musk has become firmly entangled with Trump's inner circle in recent months. So much so that he can be seen holding one of his sons in his arms in a family photo of the Trumps after the election victory. The tech titan has done a lot to earn this place. Up to mid-October alone, he poured around 120 million dollars into the ex-president's election campaign, particularly in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania.

Intensive campaign support - financially and on "X" 
He also flooded his more than 200 million followers on the online platform he owns, X, with daily calls to vote for Trump and scathing criticism of Democratic rival candidate Kamala Harris. Musk particularly harped on the controversial topic of immigration. He spread the false claim that the Democrats were flying in migrants to turn the election. Even users who don't follow him directly saw pro-Trump posts about the "for you" vote wash up on their timelines.

But in what direction could Musk steer Trump's policies? And how could the interests of his many companies play into this? After all, in Musk, Trump would be giving control of government spending to someone who constantly complains loudly about regulatory hurdles.

Musk emerged as one of Trump's most important supporters during the election campaign

(Bild: AFP)

What if Musk simply turned off the money tap to the authorities he is annoyed with? When he took over Twitter, he simply fired half the staff. Could the government apparatus be in for a similar shakedown if he sticks to his usual approach?

Musk is not only the boss of electric car manufacturer Tesla and owner of the online platform that has since been renamed X by Twitter. He also runs the aerospace company SpaceX, among others. This means that the USA is already dependent on him: Only SpaceX has the rocket capacity to launch American satellites and astronauts into orbit on a large scale.

Government contracts worth billions for SpaceX
For SpaceX, this is a billion-dollar business. And the debacle of competitor Boeing, whose new space capsule seemed too unsafe for NASA to fly astronauts back from the ISS space station, only cemented this dominance.

Musk is also the master of the Starlink satellite system with SpaceX. It is indispensable for Ukraine: its troops used it to communicate after the Russian invaders destroyed the telecommunications infrastructure. Musk's biography reveals that he single-handedly prevented a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet on the occupied Crimean peninsula - he refused to activate Starlink in the region.

However, there is another tech billionaire who wants to offer the US government an alternative to SpaceX: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. His space company Blue Origin is also developing rockets - and is also planning to compete with Starlink with the Kuiper satellite system.

Could Musk's proximity to power strengthen SpaceX's position for the future? For his part, Bezos is keen not to upset Trump. He congratulated the president-elect almost euphorically - and shortly before the election, Bezos' newspaper "Washington Post" renounced an endorsement for Kamala Harris that had already been written. On the same day, Blue Origin boss Dave Limp met Trump. A coincidence, Bezos assured him.

Tesla's "Autopilot" in the sights of the authorities
Tesla could also do with a little less attention from regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating accidents involving the "Autopilot" driver assistance system for years. Just a few days ago, it became known that the NHTSA sees a problem with Tesla's "Autopilot" videos. They could falsely give drivers the impression that Teslas with the latest version of the system can steer themselves. However, even the latest expansion stage with the full-bodied name "Full Self-Driving" is only an assistance system in which the person at the wheel must remain in control at all times.

And Musk has big plans: he recently demonstrated a Tesla robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals. It is to go into production from 2026 and enable autonomous driving using only cameras - instead of the expensive laser radars that successful robotaxi companies such as Google rely on today. This would give the electric car manufacturer a considerable cost advantage over the competition.

Tesla wants to quickly build two million such vehicles per year, announced the tech billionaire, who is notorious for missing deadlines. But there are two problems with the big plans - and less pressure from the authorities could help with both. Firstly, experts are far from certain that reliable autonomous driving can only be achieved with cameras. And secondly, cars without steering wheels and pedals are currently only allowed on the roads in small numbers as experimental vehicles.

In an extraordinary intertwining of US politics and the private sector, Trump's Vice President-elect J.D. Vance linked American NATO contributions to the fact that no action is being taken against Musk's online platform X in the EU back in September. America must say that the Europeans should commit to freedom of speech so that there is further support for the defense alliance, Vance said in an interview with Youtuber Shawn Ryan. He was referring to possible action against misinformation and hate speech on online platforms under the new DSA digital law.