The world’s richest and possibly, in near future, it’s most powerful man featured in a rare interview that had not only a panAmerican but also global audience recently. Tech titan Elon Musk let the US presidential candidate Donald Trump use his X platform and add a new dimension to his electoral campaign, spinning conspiracy theories and launching an anti-immigration campaign. It was an attempt to win sympathy from American voters and at the same time project himself as a rough and tough person fit to lead the country. Musk helped Trump’s image-building task by lauding him for his “courage” in the face of the recent attempt on his life. This was the much-needed shot in the arm for Trump who was taken off guard by President Joe Biden’s late decision to withdraw from the contest and let his deputy, Kamala Harris, take his place. This robbed Trump’s campaign team much of the firepower reserved for Biden.
The interview by Musk is thus being seen as an attempt to slow the rise of Democratic nominee Harris. In fact, the mega show marked an extraordinary chapter in a presidential campaign which is likely to turn the contest into a bitterly fought one with the promise of a nail-biting finish. The former president has been struggling to take on Harris who has been getting record donations. At one stage Trump repeated his charge against Harris that “she is a believer in being radical left.”
The interview revealed that Trump is jittery as he said without a shred of evidence that Biden had been illegally ousted to make way for Harris. He even went to the length of accusing Harris of engineering a “coup of the President of the United States.” Musk has been a critic of Trump, but of late he seems to have made up his differences with him. He at once agreed with Trump that Kamala Harris was a radical leftist and sought to massage his ego by implying that he was strong and the US needed such a leader as its President. The high-profile interview itself is a media coup of sorts in that no media campaign can match it. Musk turned into a Trump apologist and left no one in doubt that he wants to see him win a second term. “You are the path to prosperity. And I think Kamala is the opposite,” he told Trump. It was a rank partisan interview that gives a broad hint that Musk’s business interests merge with Trump’s political interests. Trump told Musk during the interview that once he wins the election he could use his service in the government. It appears Musk is keen on securing favourable treatment from the next administration for advancing his huge business interests.
For this, he willingly provided the Republican nominee an audience of at least 1.3 million concurrent listeners at the worst moment of his campaign so far. And he predicted at least 100 million people would consume the content in the coming days. Musk’s companies, including SpaceX, a key player in the US space programme, and Tesla, which makes electric vehicles, can be hit if a victorious Trump makes policies not favourable to Musk’s interests. Trump had reservations about Musk’s electric car productions, but he has softened his stand on it. The entire conversation runs the risk of being a clash of potential conflicts of interest. It is to be seen how Team Harris offers a counter-challenge.