you guys are awesome Elon Musk Tech Mogul billionaire and now political campaigner take over elanes take over musk has emerged as one of the most high-profile backers for Donald Trump as you can see I'm I'm not just Maga I'm dark Maga I say Elon you're you're a genius you are a Genus you he is special so how did we get here and what happens when the world's richest man backs your [Music] campaign I'm in Lancaster Pennsylvania it's just a few days until the election and there is a massive queue of people as you can see
they've all come to see Elon Musk the world's richest man giving a town hall and telling them why they should support Donald Trump this has become a semi-regular political platform from which musk appeals to voters and promotes early voting great are you here in your cyber truck to see Elon I'm supporting Trump and Elon absolutely yeah they were great for our country and for our future but I would say Elon doesn't behave act like the world's richest man I think he I don't I think he invest a lot of his money into making us a
better country I love him he's doing wonderful things he's getting things done he's putting people in space and I'm really hoping to hear that musk is going to say that he's going to take over efficiency of the government they're both rich men no doubt about that but I don't have a problem with that musk has even been giving away $1 million a day to selected individuals who register to vote and sign a petition supporting the first and second amendments that's the right to free speech and the right to bear arms that giveaway though is controversial
some legal Scholars have questioned it in the Justice Department in washingon is looking into it too so this giveaway um is facing two sorts of lead legal challenges I guess one is at the federal level in the United States we have a a federal law that prohibits paying someone to register to vote and this isn't a direct payment for registering a vote but it's restricted to registered voters arguably this violates that that would be a federal prosecution that's not what's happening with the the district attorney in Pennsylvania the accusation is that it's being given to
people at the rallies and not given sort of randomly to all all the entry participants so how did all this start he first crashed onto the campaign scene at a trump rally in Butler Pennsylvania that's where Trump got shot and the former president came back to finish what he'd started as I was saying since then musk who has more followers than anyone else on his own platform X has been using it to voice his support for Trump and to criticize Camala Harris and one of his posts which he deleted seems to promote wrote conspiracy theories
around the assassination attempt on Donald Trump you know I made a joke it was sort of misconstrued that it was like nobody even bothers to try to kill K that's pointless let's get another pu so everyone nobody bothers nobody even nobody's even tried to kill B they triy to kill Trump twice he's also been making some pretty hefty Financial contributions to Trump's campaign efforts he previously denied reports that he was giving $45 million to a Super PAC committed to getting Trump re-elected most political committees that do make contributions and coordinate with parties and candidates they
have to comply with a a contribution limit on the money they receive so they can only receive so much from any single person a super pack like Alon musk can receive a hundred million from a single person and I think in this case that's sort of what's Happening Alan musk is personally funding the Super PAC they don't have to do any fundraising he just gives a ton of money to the Super Pac and as part of the deal they can spend on electioneering but they can't pass along the money to parties and candidates and they
can't coordinate formally with parties and candidates musk then said he's donating monthly amounts to the prot Trump America pack which he set up and that these amounts were at a much lower level than those reported but Federal disclosures show he gave around $75 million to this group over three months they are um extremely influential they're really important um Channel by which the ultra wealthy in the United States influen Ence Federal elections it's clear that the musk political machine has mobilized in a big way for Donald Trump and it is potentially at huge personal risk to
him but how has musk managed to gain this much momentum Elon Musk is the richest man in the world with an estimated Fortune of more than $250 billion musk initially made it big from business ventures like Zip 2 and PayPal IGN he went on to create space exploration company [Applause] SpaceX what an incredible VI and invested in electric vehicle company Tesla but if there is a company that's pushed musk into the headlines more than any other than it is X formerly Twitter and of course now owned by him he bought the social media platform in
2022 for $44 billion for many years Elon Musk didn't seem to have any political party preference and he certainly wasn't a fan of trump the relationship seemed to get warmer after Donald Trump became president appointing musk to a business business Advisory Group but he resigned after Trump pulled out of a global agreement designed to try and fight climate change Elon Musk has revealed that if he succeeds in buying Twitter he will reverse the social media Giants decision to ban Donald Trump in 2022 as the new owner of X he held an online poll to see
if Donald Trump should be reinstated to the social media platform the former president had been suspended following comments he'd made after the January 6th 2021 Capital riots the poll did lead to his suspension being lifted but at the same time musk is also on record saying that it was time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset in 2024 he even said he wasn't donating to either political candidate but all that changed a few months ago take a look at what happened it seems the real turning point was the assassination attempt
on the former president's life after that he came out in full support of Donald Trump the true test of someone's character is how they behave Under Fire we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist pumping after getting [Applause] shot he then invited him for a long live streamed conversation on X where he outlined his shift I haven't been active really active in politics before um and I'm just trying to point out that my track record historically is when moderate if not moderate slightly left and and uh so
this is to people out there who are in the moderate Camp to say I think you should support um Donald Trump or president Hi everyone so why the sudden change of heart well there are a number of theories the main one among critics is that he is seeking a role in Trump's Administration in order to further his own interests well Elon Musk is not the first to try to influence politics the US system of campaign funding really opens the door for a lot of relationships between business modules and political candidates and what makes musk different
is that he makes these interests and relationships very visible last month Trump announced that he would create a government efficiency commission and suggested that Elon Musk would lead it government bureaucracy is something musk has been very vocal about and this proposed role has featured heavily in the campaign ever since how much do who you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris Biden budget well I I think we we could do at least 2 trillion yeah yes two trillion your money is being wasted and the department of government deficiency is going to
fix that although that may sound like something useful because who likes bureaucracy after all we're going to get the government off your back I think we must worry that the notion of effic efficiency can become a pretext for a purge so it can become an Avenue for going after either Regulators who Elon Musk doesn't like or voices in the government that are critical of some of the things that Donald Trump wants to do a position in the cabinet could also mean that musk receives tax breaks there was recently an article in the New York Times
that outlined all the relations between the US government and Elon musk's set of companies both in contracts but also in potential regulatory exposure and so musk having uh the ear of the executive in the United States would really be beneficial for him from a business point of view yeah he he doesn't want a government job my God he's got enough to do Trump is a Smart Cookie and once musk has done everything he possibly can to get Trump elected Trump is going to look the other way whether he gets this cabinet position or not musk's
backing of trump May mean that he's able to influence government policy whether it be on social media or AI regulation or which companies the government Awards contracts to he's going to be sort of what do we say Whisperer in Chief when he wants something done he's going to whisper of course all this would still require the backing of Congress and so the Congressional results in the election are key too 3 2 1 and then there's musk's mission to get to Mars with his company SpaceX he says humans will not get to the red planet if
Kamala Harris becomes president because she'll impose too much red tape on the project he said a couple of times that if the government would get out of his way he would send a rocket ship to Mars you know much sooner but the government is stopping him from doing that if the government would get out out of his way he says there'd be more electric cars it'd be self-driving cars and and he sees in Trump this kindred spirit someone who's willing to break all the rules to disrupt because of the geopolitical significance of musk's Enterprises satellites
information electric vehicles his involvement in government business could raise questions around conflicts of interest any geopolitical conflict that would implicate microchips or batteries or other kinds of um supplies that are relevant for Elon musk's companies would actually impact his business Empire and this came into sharp relief recently musk's company starlink provides internet anywhere in the world and has been used heavily by the Ukrainian military to prosecute their war against Russia but the Wall Street Journal has reported that musk and Russia's President Vladimir Putin have been repeated contact since late 2022 Putin allegedly asked musk to
block starlink over Taiwan as a favor for China's president Xi Jinping both the Kremlin and musk deny all of this but it highlights how a role for musk in any government could pose risks uh the need for Tesla batteries rare earth materials means that Elon Musk has an interest in relations with China and so that's where the conversation between Vladimir Putin and musk about Taiwan may all come together I think it's It's Tricky for those who who may do so to think that he you know would fall in line with the US government I think
instead that he's hoping to shape the line of the US government under Donald Trump uh so that it can be more favorable to his businesses Elon Musk and Donald Trump share a concern too about illegal immigration at the US Mexico border musk even streamed from Texas where he met local politicians and police the aim was to get what he called an unfiltered view of the situation we are basically it seems like a place where you can go to get away from the wall um I I see this this sort of a you know a kind
of a group over there that's that's that's that's coming in so and Elon Musk also sees himself as a champion of free speech uh the other side wants to take away your freedom of speech they want to take away your right to bear arms they want to take away your right to vote effectively none of this is true the Harris campaign wants regulation on hate speech they want more robust controls on gun ownership and they're calling for the strengthening of legal protections against racial discrimination in the election process and they want to make it easier
for eligible voters to cast their ballots still it doesn't stop musk making these claims in his Full Throttle endorsement of Donald Trump if you fly across the country and you look down and say great we should have get bigger what's so great about he's a great guy for you though what is what do you like about it I don't know he gets a lot of stuff done do you think that's a good idea the world's richest man to be involved in the White House I absolutely he took over Twitter and got rid of 80% of
the employees and it's still running great he's going to go up and rescue our astronauts that our swamp can't get back from space USA us musk's constituency is young men who want to drive Teslas or maybe drive rocket ships and they're already in the Trump Camp so maybe he'll bring some of them to vote who wouldn't have voted he's going to make a lot of noise he is making a lot of noise Trump and musk are betting big on each other it is a symbiotic relationship Trump got the money through the campaign musk gets maybe
a seat at the Oval Office an ear to the president both could gain from it in a trump second term
