US elections: Why Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, wants Donald Trump to be President

It's no secret that Elon Musk is a big supporter of Republican Donald Trump in this US election. Musk, the world's richest man, is offering randomly selected US citizens a chance to win a million dollars by signing a "petition" released by America PAC. The focus is mainly on the swing states, especially Pennsylvania, which is likely to be the key decider in the 2024 elections. Musk's latest efforts could be "possibly illegal".

America PAC is a political action committee founded by Musk to support Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, and the petition supports free speech and gun rights in the US. “A registered swing state voter who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC every day until Election Day,” ‘America' posted on X.

Musk's promise drew renowned author Stephen King's attention, who said, "He’s paying to register Republicans." Musk responded by writing, “All you need to do is sign the @America petition in support of the Constitutional rights to free speech & bear arms to have a daily chance of winning $1,000,000! You can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote.”

Musk endorsed Trump in July. On October 5, Musk made an interesting appearance at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania – where Trump fell victim to an assassination attempt during a campaign rally there. While campaigning for Trump in the full public view for the first time, the Tesla CEO encouraged voter registration,

Musk is currently the world's richest man with a net worth of $243 billion, according to Forbes.

But why is Elon Musk supporting Trump? What does he want in return?

Donald Trump has promised Musk that if reelected as the US President, he would appoint Musk to head a “government efficiency commission task, with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.”

This commission "is basically a commission that has the responsibility of the power to recommend huge cuts in the spending and regulation the federal government does," said David Fahrenthold, a New York Times investigative reporter.

How will this benefit Elon Musk?

Fahrenthold said this commission matters a lot to Elon Musk "as the people who oversee him, the agencies that oversee him" will now be overseen by Musk himself. "Elon is going to flip that relation…He's going to have a position of power over them," he said. The Tesla CEO will then be the decision-maker in the federal government.

This hold importance as, at present, Musk's companies face significant and, at times, costly government regulations related to consumer and environmental protections, Reuters reported.

Now, this is a job that Elon Musk vows will help rid the country of regulations he views as bad for the economy and a deterrent to doing business. “We need to reduce the size of the government, spend less money, and let the people keep a lot more of their hard earned money,” Musk said recently.

Also, Trump is vowing to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% — potentially benefiting Musk's business empire.

In the wake of these promises, it is believed that Musk's involvement at such a position in the government will results into “conflicts of interest” as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX already had millions of dollars in government contracts. "The federal government is a huge customer of his...," the New York Times investigative reporter told PBS News hour.

Meanwhile, Matt Teske, the CEO of electric vehicle charging platform Chargeway, told BBC that he believes that “Musk's interests are focused, predominantly, around a handful of things that are important to him related to his businesses, [with] regulation being something he's voiced concerns around.”

This might not be the only for Musk's inclination towards Trump. A report suggested that Musk's push towards Trump could be "partly because of Joe Biden administration's snub of Tesla vehicles when it first rolled out its EV tax incentives. "The Biden administration basically has viewed Musk as not relevant — he's been left out of the conversation," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CBS News.