Musk buys power, and maybe a trip to Mars

Elon Musk hopes President Trump will supercharge his companies, his anti-woke ideology – and his dream of transporting humans to Mars.

So what? More even than wealth or political power, Musk cares about getting to the red planet. While he supported Trump for a variety of reasons, deregulating space policy remains at or close to the top of his agenda.

A star is born. In his victory speech last week, Trump praised his campaign staff, his prospective vice-president and his family. They got a few seconds of adulation each. Elon Musk was given four minutes. Trump called him a “super-genius”, a “special guy” and “a star”.

It’s not surprising. Musk spent more than $130 million on Trump. He joined Trump on rallies, organised get-out-the-vote efforts, funded a controversial $1million-a-day sweepstake, promoted election misinformation on X and helped the 78-year-old former President connect with young male voters. As Don Jr, Trump’s son, put it: “I don’t think this race would even be close if it wasn’t for what Elon’s doing with X.”

Elon 2.0. Billionaires have tried to interfere in politics before. But Musk is in a different category. As Ryan Mac, the author of a new book on Musk, tells Tortoise in a new episode of the Elon’s Spies podcast series: “It’s a new era for him. He has the direct ear of a President. He’s in uncharted territory.”

Here’s what we can expect:

• Business. Musk’s companies benefited from $3 billion worth of government contracts last year across 17 federal agencies. They’ve collectively been targeted by 20 recent investigations. Musk can now expect fewer investigations and more contracts. As Mac says, if Nasa is deciding on a new subcontract, the SpaceX founder’s proximity to Trump means “maybe he can put his thumb on the scale”. Trump has promised to put Musk in charge of a government efficiency commission, giving him a mandate to cut costs at the same regulators that oversee his businesses.
• Geopolitics. Musk has already participated in a phone call with Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky, and has reportedly been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin since 2022. He is now expected to advise Trump on how to implement enhanced tariffs on Chinese EVs and will push him to eliminate the $7,500 tax credit currently given to EV buyers in the US. Musk wants to scrap the credit because it makes it easier for legacy carmakers to challenge Tesla’s dominance of the EV market.
• Anti-woke AI. Musk’s move to the right coincided with his transgender daughter, Vivia, applying to legally change her name and gender. He later said that she was “dead” to him. Musk has recently accused ChatGPT and other AI programmes of being too “politically correct”. He could support a Trump attack on perceived liberal bias in LLMs (large language models).

Those are Musk’s priorities on earth. But that’s not counting his central obsession: space.

The final frontier. Trump’s administration will make transporting humans to Mars a bigger national priority – with SpaceX at the centre.

• SpaceX’s Starship rocket will be used to return humans to the moon – something likely to happen during Trump’s second administration. Trump has suggested this is just a first step: “Elon, get those rocket ships going because we want to reach Mars.”
• Musk wants to dramatically increase the number of test flights for Starship prototypes from SpaceX’s South Texas base. He thinks the Federal Aviation Administration is holding him back. Trump is likely to instruct the agency to relax its own rules, or even give Musk some influence over it.

“Everything Elon does is about going to Mars,” says Jim Cantrell, an old colleague of Musk’s at SpaceX. Cantrell’s theory is that each of Musk’s companies is designed to help him colonise the red planet, from the obvious (SpaceX’s Starship rocket) to the less predictable (Musk’s Boring company could be used to dig holes to underground Mars habitats, Cantrell says).

In 1962, John F. Kennedy evoked his country’s pioneer spirit when he declared the US would land astronauts on the Moon. Trump may pour billions of dollars into sending a human to Mars, not because – like JFK – he chooses to, but because it’s what Musk wants.

What’s more… Trump owes him.