How do Elon Musk’s politics align and diverge from Donald Trump’s?

With the election just days away, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have their sights set on key states and undecided voters. For Trump, that means tapping Elon Musk for appearances across Pennsylvania and New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Trump has even floated the idea of ​​appointing Musk, the world’s richest man, to a new government efficiency role if elected.

For Musk, a longtime champion of renewable energy who has previously given money to political candidates of both parties, the Trump alliance is part of a shift to the right (as has happened to many other Silicon Valley elites).

Musk’s comments at X and at political rallies echo several key points from Trump’s MAGA. But how closely aligned are these two political bedfellows when it comes to their views on policy?

good luck Zoomed in on some of the key policy issues facing the next administration to see where Musk and Trump see eye to eye — and where they diverge.

Immigration

positions: Seemingly compatible

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John Moore – Getty Images

Trump: Trump’s Mass Deportation Proposal Ending Birthright Citizenship for Children of Undocumented Parents; Deporting and revoking the visas of foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters; revoking humanitarian parole; and adding “theoretical screening”. His only pro-immigration policy is to grant automatic green cards to non-citizen graduates of American colleges and universities.

Musk: Musk, who was born in South Africa, often spreads anti-immigration content on X, including conspiracies about voter fraud. He has said, “As an immigrant, I’m pro-immigrant, I just want to make sure that the people who come here are going to be an asset to society.” Musk has tweeted about deporting criminals, but doesn’t seem to have expressed a clear opinion on Trump’s calls for mass deportations.

Clean energy

positions: On disagreement

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Patrick T. Fallon—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Musk: Musk owns Tesla, the first successful mass-market electric car manufacturer. He has touted renewable energy as cheap and efficient and proposed a one-time tax on carbon emissions. In a live chat with Trump, Musk said solar power could one day provide most of the Earth’s energy but warned against discrediting the oil and gas industries. Musk served as Trump’s corporate economic adviser in 2016 but left the advisory council a year later following Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord.

Trump: For years, Trump has called climate change a hoax. He largely opposes clean energy policies, seeks to roll back regulations on oil and gas drilling and once again withdraw the United States from the international Paris Agreement on climate change. He also opposes the Biden administration’s EV subsidies and vehicle efficiency laws.

Abortion

positions: Somewhat compatible

Musk: Musk, who has fathered at least 11 children, is famously pro-breeding, believing that “falling birth rates are the greatest threat to civilization.” He told Pennsylvania voters at a Trump rally that abortion should not be allowed after viability, claiming that “at this point it’s not abortion, it’s murder.”

Trump: Trump’s position on abortion has changed over the years. While campaigning in 2016, he promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would waive the constitutional right to abortion. And he often expressed support for a federal ban on abortion until 2022 that was overturned by the Supreme Court. cried v. Wade. Since the SCOTUS ruling, it has shied away from taking a clear position on the issue of the federal ban in light of the backlash, but has supported states taking restrictive measures.

Guns

positions: OhSimilarity

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Joe Lamberti — Bloomberg/Getty Images

Trump: Trump is a friend of the National Rifle Association and has rallied voters by claiming that Harris wants to confiscate firearms. While in office, he rolled back Obama administration regulations that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to buy guns.

Musk: Musk’s theory is that “as soon as the government can disarm the people, they can do whatever they want.” Their America PAC petition urges voters to pledge support for Second Amendment rights.

Tariff

positions: Somewhat connected

Musk: Musk has gone back and forth on tariffs. In May, he criticized US tariffs on Chinese EVs. Most recently, at a Trump rally, he said Tesla needed tariffs to compete with Chinese EV makers.

Trump: Trump has said, “The most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,'” and has used it frequently during his presidency. In his current campaign for the White House, Trump has announced a 60 percent increase in tariffs on Chinese imports, including automobiles. He has also promised to scrap the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity trade agreement and impose universal tariffs on most foreign imports.

to facexes

positions: apparently connected

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Anna Money Maker – Getty Images

Trump: During his presidency, Trump signed legislation to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and has proposed further cuts if he wins a second term. Among other tax ideas he has proposed: eliminating the federal income tax for individuals; elimination of taxes on tips and overtime pay; and repealing the green energy tax credit.

Musk: While Musk hasn’t weighed in on specific taxes, he recently vowed to keep the government “off your back and out of your pocket” in a Trump rally speech in which he called “taxation” all government spending. was described as He has offered to advise a potential Trump administration “to ensure that our government operates more efficiently and effectively uses America’s taxpayer dollars.” He has proposed cutting a third of the government’s $6.75 trillion annual budget without saying where the cuts would come from.

Government subsidies

positions: Somewhat connected

Musk: Musk once believed in universal basic income. Now, as the world’s richest man, he says the government should cut spending on subsidies. He recently claimed that EV subsidies make up only a small portion of Tesla’s revenue, and that SpaceX collects no government subsidies, although Tesla continues to lobby for government benefits.

Trump: While in office, Trump sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act and proposed budget cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, and other social safety net programs. On the campaign trail, he made promises to protect Social Security and Medicare. He has also said that he would restore the child tax credit for income-only families, and that he would end the spending cuts for the Inflation Act.

Onsuring manufacturing

positions: Somewhat connected

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STR/AFP/Getty Images

Musk: Musk has put plans for a gigafactory in Mexico on hold until after the election, but a battery factory in Shanghai broke ground earlier this year. Tesla already has an automobile manufacturing facility in China, promoting its Fremont, California, plant as the company’s most valuable and productive site.

Trump: Trump says steep tariffs and corporate tax breaks will prevent the offshoring of manufacturing jobs. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. reportedly added 414,000 manufacturing jobs before the pandemic—but by the end of his term he had presided over a net loss of nearly 200,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.

LGBTQ+ rights

positions: apparently connected

Musk: This is a frequent topic of discussion on X for Musk. He called a California law barring teachers from notifying parents of students’ gender identity the “final straw” that prompted him to move X and SpaceX’s headquarters to Texas, which includes gender verification for minors. Maintenance is prohibited.

Trump: Trump has promised to roll back policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including one day changing protections under Title IX, the civil rights law that protects against gender discrimination in education. He has also said he would limit access to gender-affirming care, for example, by barring doctors from providing transition care from Medicare and Medicaid.

Foreign policy

positions: Somewhat connected

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Alexander Nemenov — AFP/Getty Images

Musk: Musk has come under fire for reports that he is in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. It made its Starlink internet satellites available to Ukraine at the start of the war with Russia, but reportedly refused to allow Ukraine to use the service in 2022 in a surprise attack on Russian aircraft. . There have been reports that the Russian military now has access to Starlink satellites. Musk has denied these reports. Starlink also provides internet access in Gaza and Yemen, although the company once threatened to cut off services in Sudan.

Trump: Trump has long been under scrutiny for his close relationship with Putin. Insisting that the war in Ukraine must end soon, he criticized the limits on US aid to Ukraine and emphasized “America First” foreign policies. In the Middle East, Trump vowed to unite with Israel and Saudi Arabia. While president, Trump has waged a trade war with China and adopted a confrontational approach to general relations with Beijing.

free speech

positions: Attached

Musk: Musk considers himself a “free speech totalitarian.” His America PAC petition also calls on voters to pledge support for free speech. Censorship was among Musk’s alleged reasons for buying X for $44 billion. Since he took over as X, Musk has been under fire for allowing hate speech to flourish on the platform.

Trump: Trump calls himself a supporter of free speech but has said he wants to outlaw the burning of the American flag and that the news media should lose their broadcast licenses and pay damages for unfavorable coverage. Like Musk, Trump also runs a social media platform, Truth Social, under the guise of open discourse. But users who posted about congressional hearings on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were reportedly censored.

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