Elon Musk Spent More Than $170 Billion Helping Trump Win Election. Do You Think Elon Musk Is Really a Good Man?
Elon Musk: The Factor That Helped Trump Win a Battleground State?
Billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, built a massive campaign “machine” to support former President Donald Trump. He became the social media channel for Trump’s campaign and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to influence voters in the battleground state.
Despite its wide-ranging reach, billionaire Elon Musk’s activities have been clearly focused on the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. In recent weeks, Musk has held rallies in multiple areas of the state, emphasizing his role in deciding the election outcome.
In between appearances, Musk has posted updates on early vote totals and election-oriented content on his social media platform X. At a rally in Folsom in October, the billionaire said, “The reason I’m here is because Pennsylvania is so important to the future of the world.” Months before the election, Musk focused on Pennsylvania, which has been flooded with political ads and voter-getting activities. Many analysts said the billionaire spent a lot of money to “compete” with the funding supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.
Experts said that Musk’s heavy spending and his “attractiveness” to young male voters will have a beneficial impact on former President Trump. Although it is not considered too large, this could be decisive in the fiercely competitive battleground state. According to the average of 538 polls in Pennsylvania, the two presidential candidates are still quite close, although Mr. Trump leads by 0.1 percentage points.
Michael Kang, a law professor at Northwestern University, said Musk’s efforts would not have a huge impact, but they could be decisive in Pennsylvania, where the race is so close that it could easily be a game-changer.
Musk has frequently posted pro-Trump messages on his social media platform X, which has more than 202 million followers. He has appeared on stage at Trump rallies multiple times to appeal to voters. He has also donated nearly $75 million to Trump in the past three months.
Musk recently began a campaign to donate $1 million a day to registered voters in battleground states. To enter the sweepstakes, individuals must sign a petition from Musk’s America PAC, which pledges support for the First and Second Amendments. The America PAC website says the only people eligible to sign are registered voters in seven key battleground states.
Experts say the giveaway and the attention it has garnered across Pennsylvania could help drive Musk’s fans to the polls. Rather than finding new supporters for Trump, Musk could help increase turnout, especially among younger men, to help boost the former president’s chances of defeating him.
Robin Kolodny, a political science professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, said Musk has funded a campaign touting his own support for Trump. He said it’s important to think of Elon Musk the same way he thinks of Taylor Swift. Swift, who has endorsed Harris, attracted more than 400,000 visits to the voter registration website Vote.gov in September, according to the New York Times.
In a post on X last week, Musk cited early voting data as a sign that Pennsylvania was headed for a “decisive Republican victory,” despite earlier polls showing a tight race.
On the flip side, some experts say Musk’s strategy risks backfiring on Trump. Peter Brusoe, a professor of political science and economics at the State University of New York at Delhi, said Musk’s intervention could make some voters think the campaign is out of touch with the concerns of the people. “In a swing state like Pennsylvania, this could actually do more harm than good,” Brusoe said.
So far, experts say Musk’s campaign could have an impact on the outcome in Pennsylvania, but it’s hard to determine the exact impact in a campaign season as packed as this one.
