Why Elon Musk is skipping around on stage for Donald Trump

Why has Elon Musk, whose Twitter/X is reportedly bleeding advert income, gone all in on supporting misinformation maven Donald Trump? Why is he bouncing round levels sporting a number of shades of MAGA hat? Why take a look at election legislation now, so near November 5, with a doubtful $1 million lottery for registered voters in swing states who’ve signed Musk’s equally doubtful petition?

These questions are being raised on the marketing campaign path, after VP candidate Tim Walz joked in a speech Tuesday that Musk was successfully Trump’s VP decide. In a made-for-memes second, Walz questioned why Musk had began “dancing like a dipshit” on the former president’s rallies.

The reply is probably not that Musk has simply turn out to be a rabid red-pilled true believer. The proprietor’s X feed has lengthy been filled with far-right fibs that are not getting Neighborhood Notes, and but even now he appears reluctant to go down the deepest MAGA rabbit holes — for instance, declining to obtain a e book of conspiracy theories on the 2020 election at his first solo Pennsylvania occasion this week.

Neither is this about Musk’s tax invoice. You may suppose that may be the principle purpose for the world’s richest man to vault a candidate like Trump, who guarantees to chop his efficient tax fee, to the pinnacle of the federal authorities. However based mostly on ProPublica’s IRS investigations, Musk possible pays little to no federal earnings tax already. Trump would attempt to decrease the tax fee on gross sales of inventory, one thing Musk does so much — however it’s Congress that finally decides whether or not to chop taxes, not the president.

No, it appears to be like more and more like Musk’s predominant concern is evading penalties from the feds, in line with an exhaustive New York Occasions report.

4 of Musk’s firms face a complete of “no less than 20” federal probes. The Departments of Justice, Labor and Transportation are wanting into authorized violations and discrimination lawsuits at Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. And X? The SEC and the FTC are throughout it for alleged violations round Musk’s $44 billion buy. Simply this month, Musk was a no-show at a court-ordered SEC interview.

Musk has a historical past of dragging the SEC and different regulators by way of lengthy courtroom battles, then paying fines that pale compared to his wealth. However now, with so many fronts to combat on, 2025 would be the yr that the billionaire’s disdain lastly catches up with him given the amount of investigations detailed within the New York Occasions report.

On prime of his federal battles, Musk is going through a dozen non-public lawsuits from Tesla house owners’ households, three of that are slated to go to trial in 2025. The lawsuits allege that Musk made Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities appear extra superior than they have been, leading to a number of deaths and accidents. The Nationwide Freeway Security Visitors Administration and the DOJ are wanting into the identical factor.

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On the identical time, Musk at the moment holds an unimaginable quantity of sway inside the federal authorities – as one among its largest contractors. The Occasions dug up almost $16 billion in contracts for his firms during the last decade, the overwhelming majority with the Pentagon and NASA. And Musk’s reliance on authorities cash is rising: final yr alone, his firms gained $3 billion from a complete of 17 federal businesses.

That is 3 billion causes yearly to stymie any investigations that might convey Musk’s home of contracts crashing down.

And this is what Trump has provided Musk: his personal “authorities effectivity fee” that may advocate cuts to federal businesses. Crucially, it could additionally recommend modifications to rules. Trump and his Mission 2025 supporters have vowed a sweeping purge of federal authorities workers. In a second Trump administration, Musk may very well be one of the crucial highly effective voices on the desk deciding the course of that purge.

There it’s: Not a conspiracy principle, however an out-in-the-open supply to let Musk torment his investigators. Musk might costume it up as “D.O.G.E.,” referencing one among his favourite memes, however this is how the Occasions report places it: The division “would basically give the world’s richest man and a significant authorities contractor the facility to control the regulators who maintain sway over his firms, amounting to a probably monumental battle of curiosity.”

Given the eye-popping sum of money concerned, “probably monumental battle of curiosity” may very well be an understatement. In any case, rising Musk’s $3 billion-a-year authorities enterprise — and safeguarding his companies from investigations that will tank the inventory — is value bouncing round swing states waving large checks in any variety of MAGA hats.