Elon Musk is ready to start his career in politics

November is getting closer and closer, signaling that in exactly two months, Americans will be called to vote to decide who between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will become President. While waiting for the presidential debate between the two candidates, scheduled for September 10th, both politicians continue their electoral campaigns like war machines. Last Thursday, at a Trump campaign event at the Economic Club of New York, the Republican candidate declared that once back in the Oval Office, he would form a commission for government efficiency, and leading it would be none other than billionaire Elon Musk – who has no political experience and is considered the mastermind behind one of the worst leveraged buyout deal since the 2008 housing crisis. Musk responded on his platform to a video of the statement, saying that the appointment would be “absolutely necessary”. Responses from netizens have been far from positive, with one comment highlighting, “Musk already can’t handle X, let alone the government”: it received 3.5k likes.

Celebrity endorsements are key to winning public approval in American elections, which tend to encourage young people and those less interested in politics to vote. While Harris has a long list of A-list names (from Beyoncé to George Clooney), the only major celebrity who has openly supported Trump in recent months is Elon Musk. Since the owner of X reinstated the politician’s official profile on the platform (previously suspended for incitement to hate after the January 6 2021 attacks), the two have continued to interact on and off the platform, becoming inseparable allies. Among the interactions with the most public engagement was the two-hour interview held on X, where they discussed the attempted assassination of the former President, deportation laws (which Trump wants to make even stricter), and workers' rights. On the latter topic, there were several criticisms about a joke exchanged between the two, where they declared that if their workers were to strike, they would fire them, giving the conversation dystopian tones.

Despite the Musk-Trump pairing seeming very harmonious, not long ago, there was much tension between the two; in fact, on several occasions, they publicly criticized each other. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX was a strong supporter of the Democratic party for years, and when Trump announced his candidacy for a third time, Musk expressed that “he’s too old to become president again” and supported Republican alternative Ron DeSantis. In response, at a political rally, Donald Trump called the entrepreneur a ‘bullshit artist’. The key to their reconciliation was their affinity for anti-establishment ideologies, a cornerstone of Trump’s appeal as a politician and Musk’s as the figure behind a social network like X. But this pairing does not worry the Democratic Party at all; in fact, it has become a powerful weapon for their electoral campaign: as stated by a Democratic strategist, “every time Elon Musk tries to do something to help Donald Trump, it only gives Democrats more motivation to work against him.” According to the latest polls from The New York Times, Kamala Harris is leading with 49%, while Trump is trailing by 3%, losing key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In two months, everything could change, but for now, we can count on constant updates from Elon Musk on his X profile: born an entrepreneur, now a political commentator, and possible future member of the Grand Old Party.