Elon Musk backs Donald Trump’s decisive victory for second presidency It gives the billionaire entrepreneur extraordinary clout to help his companies receive favorable treatment from the government.

Musk contributed at least $119 million to a pro-Trump spending group, according to federal records, and he showered tireless praise on the former president in the critical final phase of his campaign.

Musk’s politicking reflects a broader strategy to insulate his companies from regulation or sanctions and increase government support, according to Reuters interviews with six Musk company sources familiar with his political and business dealings and two government officials with extensive interactions with Musk firms. The sources offered a rare glimpse into the strategies within Musk’s companies to take full advantage of his deepening relationship with Trump.

From Tesla electric vehicles to SpaceX rockets to Neuralink brain chips, Musk’s business interests depend heavily on government regulations, subsidies or policies.

“Elon Musk feels that all regulations are hindering his business and innovation,” said a former SpaceX official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He sees the Trump administration as the means to get rid of as many regulations as possible so he can do whatever he wants, as fast as he wants.”

Musk endorsed Trump on July 13, the day the candidate was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. Musk’s donations have funded a sweeping get-out-the-vote effort as Trump faces a tougher challenge after Vice President Kamala Harris replaces President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee in July. Musk spent election night with the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and Trump said he would call Musk his administration’s “efficiency czar.”

Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The Trump campaign called Musk a “once-in-a-generation industry leader” in a statement to Reuters, adding that “the fractured federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”

Musk once built his image around combating climate change by building electric cars to reduce pollution and rockets that could one day help people escape a dying Earth to Mars. He is now at the forefront of a growing class of Silicon Valley billionaires advocating a libertarian movement as a reaction against the California region’s historically liberal ideology; Musk now derides it as a “woke mind virus.”

His increased political involvement could put his industrial empire in a position that current and former employees liken to the Gilded Age, when industry barons such as J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller had broad influence over government policies that affected their businesses and fortunes.

Musk’s growing power has excited his supporters, who see the government as an impediment to high-tech operations, including venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, who invested in SpaceX and has advocated for Silicon Valley’s turn toward Trump. He said cutting regulations would speed up SpaceX’s efforts to reach Mars.

“He will make America work like a startup,” Pishevar said about Musk. “There is no greater entrepreneur in American history than Elon Musk.”

Forward automatic policy

Musk’s political rise follows perceived slights under the Biden administration, which has accelerated Musk’s embrace of Trump’s right-wing populism. For example, Tesla was not invited to the August 2021 EV summit at the White House, which featured only unionized Detroit automakers that produce some of the EVs Tesla sells.

Tesla’s fortunes could rise or fall depending on Trump’s approach to various subsidies, policies and regulatory plans for electric and autonomous vehicles. Democratic administrations have historically supported many of these types of pro-EV policies, with Tesla backing. Despite the Republican party’s traditional rejection of electric vehicles and Trump mocking Biden’s EV policy on the campaign trail, Musk can now potentially champion them.

Among Musk’s goals for Tesla The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the main federal safety regulator, will delay possible enforcement actions It includes the safety of Tesla’s existing driver assistance systems called “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving,” according to a person familiar with the matter.

Musk’s “primary focus over the next four years” will be “sanctions relief,” the person said.

The source said Musk could also push for positive regulations for autonomous vehicles and robotaxis, which Tesla is planning. Musk could shape emerging rules or a new agency for his new artificial intelligence initiative xAI, the person said.

Musk said last month that he expects to launch driverless Teslas in California and Texas next year and begin production on a fully autonomous “Cybercab” with no steering wheel or pedals in 2026. Tesla would need an exemption from NHTSA to produce such a vehicle.

There are no nationwide regulations regarding how autonomous vehicles can be deployed. This means operators must deal with different regulations in each state. On Tesla’s earnings call last month, Musk lamented the challenges of the state-by-state regulatory environment and advocated for a federal approval process.

Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Tesla investor Zacks Investment Management, said a simplified, uniform set of autonomous driving regulations could give Tesla the biggest boost of any policy Musk could influence. He said a “slimmer, smoother federal Department of Transportation issuing common-sense guidelines” would give Tesla “the room to prove its case” on the technology’s safety.

Despite Musk’s complaints of stifling bureaucracy, SpaceX now leads the world in government-funded rocket launches and Tesla sells nearly two million subsidized electric vehicles a year.

Tesla shares closed up nearly 15% on Wednesday.

Musk has long complained that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval process for his brain implant startup Neuralink has slowed the company’s ability to implant the device into people. Musk could use his growing influence in the Trump administration to cut off some security-related approvals in the process, according to a source familiar with the company’s operations.

Musk has long expressed frustration with the FDA’s speed. A person familiar with the matter said some Neuralink employees thought that if Musk became Trump’s “efficiency” chief, he could get FDA officials fired that he deemed inefficient.

growing power

Musk’s designs on creating a loose regulatory environment come as his companies already face fewer regulatory requirements and softer enforcement of existing federal rules, according to six Musk company sources familiar with Musk’s regulatory actions and political strategy. Some federal agencies are already struggling to muster the political will to go after Musk companies for alleged policy violations or safety issues, they said, in part because Musk is the dominant player in highly regulated and politicized industries like electric cars and rockets.

For example, NASA relied on SpaceX’s know-how on such missions. Like the anticipated rescue of Boeing’s Starliner astronauts still stranded in space.

NASA and other agencies often try to avoid alienating the company, said a federal official familiar with the company’s government interactions who spoke on condition of anonymity. “NASA needs SpaceX more than SpaceX needs NASA,” the official said.

NASA has invested more than $15 billion in SpaceX. SpaceX is also developing a network of hundreds of spy satellites with a U.S. intelligence agency, Reuters reported.

A Reuters investigation last year documented injuries to at least 600 workers at SpaceX facilities across the country and found that Musk’s rocket company ignored safety regulations and standard practices. Worker injury rates at SpaceX facilities also continued to exceed the industry average last year, according to a Reuters review of safety data.

Neither NASA nor OSHA, which regulates worker safety, has taken any enforcement action against SpaceX for employee injuries and related reporting violations. NASA declined to comment on Musk’s potential influence after Trump’s election.

Musk nevertheless condemned the government for trying to enforce the rules even though his company was moving faster than its rivals. In a pre-election interview, he called federal sanctions too harsh and said he aimed to get rid of “crazy” regulations.

“In the end, you can’t do anything,” Musk said at the All-in Summit, a meeting tied to a tech podcast of the same name.

But the U.S. government does not regulate the safety of participants on private spaceflights in orbit because of a temporary ban imposed by Congress on the agency’s oversight to encourage innovation in the industry. The Musk-influenced Trump administration is expected to push for lenient regulations on that front, according to four SpaceX sources familiar with the regulatory strategy.

Musk and SpaceX see the company’s dominance as proof that it can handle less oversight, but releasing Musk could have unintended consequences for the industry, the sources said.

A former SpaceX official has warned that lax regulation in an industry as dangerous as rocket building could “blow up in everyone’s face and set the industry back a decade.”