US election latest \u2013 world congratulates Trump<\/strong><\/p>\nBut what is in it for Elon Musk?<\/p>\n
First is the role promised to him by Mr Trump as head of a new Department Of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n
This would give the billionaire the power to scythe through US federal bureaucracy that both he and Mr Trump say has long held America back.<\/p>\n
Mr Musk certainly feels it holds him back. Environmental and safety regulations have, at times, delayed his break-neck rocket testing programme and the rollout of self-driving Tesla robo-taxis.<\/p>\n
Mr Musk nicknamed the would-be new department DOGE \u2013 a reference to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency he often promotes \u2013 so quickly you wonder if the idea was his all along.<\/p>\n
Removing regulatory barriers to his own business interests, or cutting contracts for his more cumbersome, government-dependent rivals like Boeing, would clearly appeal.<\/p>\n
But Mr Musk is also ideological and wants to go much further \u2013 arguing there is $2tn (\u00a31.55tn) in inefficiency to be slashed from the federal budget.<\/p>\n
Many economists think this would be insane, gutting budgets for healthcare, education, science, environment and welfare, tanking the economy and fuelling unemployment.<\/p>\n
But Mr Musk didn\u2019t become the world\u2019s richest man by doing things by half.<\/p>\n
His purchase of Twitter<\/strong> for $44bn (\u00a334bn) in 2022, was seen as a spectacularly bad business move. Does it look that way now?<\/p>\nMr Musk also wants Mr Trump to deliver on his promise to promote the cryptocurrencies he backs ideologically and is invested in financially \u2013 even a plan to use a crypto price boom to pay down America\u2019s $35tn (\u00a327tn) debt.<\/p>\n
And Mr Musk\u2019s gamble in backing Mr Trump is already paying off. The value of his companies like Tesla has grown, if X and Space X were publicly traded, it\u2019s expected they\u2019d have soared too.<\/p>\n
The price of cryptocurrencies has also shot up at news of Mr Trump\u2019s victory, including meme coins like Dogecoin \u2013 long regarded as junk even by most crypto investors.<\/p>\n
The Trump-Musk relationship takes America into new, very uncertain territory.<\/p>\n
Big business has always sought influence in government \u2013 but never has the relationship been this close or exclusive.<\/p>\n
And never between two men as madcap and morally removed from the mainstream.<\/p>\n
But will the relationship endure?<\/p>\n
Mr Musk might bring the White House Silicon Valley<\/strong> expertise and cash. He has promised to continue his America PAC donations<\/strong> to support Republicans. His control of social media is a formidable tool for the Trump administration.<\/p>\nHowever, Mr Trump\u2019s plans for aggressive tariffs could destroy Tesla\u2019s business with China.<\/p>\n
Mr Musk has said \u201cf*** oil,\u201d while the president-elect calls it \u201cliquid gold\u201d.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the two men themselves. Mr Trump has said he will accept only total loyalty in his new administration.<\/p>\n
Can he \u2013 more his famously fragile ego \u2013 tolerate a man with greater wealth, a clearer mission, and possibly even a larger ego than himself?<\/p>\n
Mr Musk is famous for not suffering those he sees as fools, and a willingness to blow things up in his dogged pursuit of success.<\/p>\n
This could all end with a bang.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe future is gonna be fantastic,\u201d America\u2019s unlikely kingmaker posted on X, above a photograph…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}