Politics
How Elon Musk's Politics Align and Differ From Donald Trump's
With the election just days away, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have set their sights on key states and undecided voters. For Trump, that means tapping Elon Musk for appearances in Pennsylvania and at New York's Madison Square Garden. Trump has even floated the idea of appointing Musk, the world's richest person, to a new government efficiency role if he is elected.
For Musk, a longtime advocate of renewable energy who has already donated money to political candidates of both parties, the Trump alliance is part of a shift to the right (as has happened with several other elites of Silicon Valley).
Musk's comments on X and at political rallies echo many of Trump's key MAGA talking points. But how closely aligned are these two political partners when it comes to their views on policy?
Fortune looked at some of the key policy issues facing the next administration to see where Musk and Trump agree and where they part ways.
Immigration posts: apparently lined up
John Moore Getty Images
Trump: Trump proposes mass deportations; the end of the birthright for children of undocumented parents; deport and revoke the visas of foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters; revoke parole on humanitarian grounds; and adding ideological screening. Its only pro-immigration policy is to automatically grant green cards to non-citizen graduates of American colleges and universities.
Musk: South African-born Musk frequently posts anti-immigration content on X, including conspiracies about election fraud. He said: “As an immigrant, I'm pro-immigrant, I just want to make sure that the people who come here will be assets to society. Musk has tweeted about deporting criminals, but does not appear to have explicitly expressed an opinion on Trump's calls for mass deportations.
Positions on clean energy: disagree
Patrick T. FallonBloomberg/Getty Images
Musk: Musk owns Tesla, the first successful consumer electric car maker. He called renewable energy profitable and efficient and once proposed taxing carbon emissions. In a live conversation with Trump, Musk said solar power could one day provide most of the Earth's energy, but warned against vilifying the oil and gas industries. Musk served as Trump's corporate economic adviser in 2016, but left the advisory board a year later following Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords.
Trump: For years, Trump called climate change a hoax. He widely opposes clean energy policies, seeking to ease regulations on oil and gas drilling and once again exclude the United States from the international Paris agreement on climate change. He also opposes the Biden administration's electric vehicle subsidies and vehicle efficiency rules.
Positions on abortion: somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk, who has fathered at least 11 children, is notoriously pro-childbearing, believing that collapsing birth rates pose the greatest danger facing civilization. He told Pennsylvania voters at a Trump rally that abortion should not be allowed if it is no longer viable, saying at that point it's not an abortion, it's a murder.
Trump: Trump's position on abortion has changed over the years. During his 2016 election campaign, he pledged to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would revisit the constitutional right to abortion. And he has often expressed support for a federal ban on abortion until 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since the SCOTUS decision, he has been reluctant to take a clear position on the issue of a federal ban in light of the backlash, but has supported states adopting restrictive measures.
Weapon positions: aligned
Joe LambertiBloomberg/Getty Images
Trump: Trump is a friend of the National Rifle Association and rallied voters by saying Harris wanted to confiscate guns. While in office, he reversed Obama administration regulations that made it harder for people with mental illness to purchase guns.
Musk: Musk's view is that as soon as the government can disarm the people, it can do whatever it wants. His America PAC petition urges voters to pledge support for Second Amendment rights.
Tariff positions: somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk has gone back and forth on pricing. In May, he criticized U.S. tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Most recently, at a Trump rally, he said Tesla needed tariffs to compete with Chinese electric vehicle makers.
Trump: Trump said, “The greatest word in the dictionary is 'tariffs,' and he has used it frequently during his presidency.” In his current campaign for the White House, Trump has proposed raising tariffs on Chinese imports, including automobiles, to 60 percent. He also promised to end the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity trade deal and impose universal tariffs on most foreign imports.
Tax positions: apparently aligned
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Trump: Trump signed legislation reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% during his presidency, and he has offered to cut it further if he wins a second term. Among the other tax ideas he proposed: eliminating the federal personal income tax; eliminate taxes on tips and overtime; and repealing green energy tax credits.
Musk: Although Musk hasn't weighed in on specific taxes, he recently promised to keep government off your back and out of your wallet in a Trump rally speech in which he outlined all government spending like taxation. He offered to advise a potential Trump administration to ensure our government operates more efficiently and uses American taxpayer dollars effectively. He suggested cutting the government's annual budget by a third, or $6.75 trillion, without specifying where the cuts would come from.
Government subsidies Positions: Rather aligned
Musk: Musk once believed in universal basic income. Now, as the world's richest person, he says the government should cut spending on subsidies. He recently claimed that electric vehicle subsidies represent only a small portion of Tesla's revenue and that SpaceX collects no government subsidies, although Tesla continues to push for government benefits.
Trump: Trump attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act while in office and proposed cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance and other social safety net programs . On the campaign trail, he promised to protect Social Security and Medicare. He also said he would restore the child tax credit only to income-earning families and eliminate spending related to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Manufacturing Offshoring Positions: Somewhat Aligned
STR/AFP/Getty Images
Musk: Musk put his plans for a megafactory in Mexico on hold until after the election, but broke ground on a battery factory in Shanghai earlier this year. Tesla already has an auto manufacturing plant in China, which has eclipsed its Fremont, Calif., factory as the company's most valuable and productive site.
Trump: Trump says high tariffs and corporate tax breaks will curb the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. Under the Trump administration, the United States created 414,000 manufacturing jobs before the pandemic, according to reports, but by the end of his term he had presided over a net loss of nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs. American manufacturing sector.
LGBTQ+ Rights Positions: apparently aligned
Musk: This is a common topic of conversation on X for Musk. He called a California law preventing educators from telling parents about students' gender identity the final straw that prompted him to move the headquarters of X and SpaceX to Texas, which bans child care gender affirmation for minors.
Trump: Trump has promised to roll back policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including rolling back on day one the protections of Title IX, the civil rights law protecting against sex discrimination in the education. He also said he would restrict access to gender-affirming care by, for example, blocking doctors who provide transitional care from Medicare and Medicaid.
Foreign policy positions: somewhat aligned
Alexandre NemenovAFP/Getty Images
Musk: Musk has come under fire over reports that he was in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. It made its Starlink internet satellites available to Ukraine at the start of its war with Russia, but reportedly refused to let Ukraine use the service in a surprise attack on Russian ships in 2022. It was reported that Russian troops now have access to Starlink satellites, although Musk has refuted these reports. Starlink also provides internet access to Gaza and Yemen, although the company has previously threatened to shut down its services in Sudan.
Trump: Trump has long been under scrutiny due to his close ties to Putin. While emphasizing the need to quickly end the war in Ukraine, he criticized the extent of U.S. aid to Ukraine and touted America First foreign policies. In the Middle East, Trump promises an alliance with Israel and Saudi Arabia. While president, Trump started a trade war with China and took a confrontational approach in overall relations with Beijing.
Positions on freedom of expression: aligned
Musk: Musk considers himself a free speech absolutist. His America PAC petition also urges voters to pledge to support unfettered speech. Censorship was one of Musk's reasons for buying X for $44 billion. Since taking over X, Musk has been criticized for allowing hate speech to flourish on the platform.
Trump: Trump calls himself pro-free speech, but has said he wants to make burning the American flag illegal and that media outlets should lose their broadcast licenses and pay him damages for unfavorable coverage. Like Musk, Trump runs a social media platform, Truth Social, under the idea of open discourse. But users who posted about congressional hearings regarding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were reportedly censored.
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