The fortune of Elon Musk, boss of Tesla and X, increased by 26.5 billion euros the day after the election of Donald Trump. He is now the richest man on the planet.
Since the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in early November 2024, the fortune of Elon Musk, boss of X (formerly Twitter) has continued to grow. “In the three days following the election of Donald Trump, Elon Musk’s fortune jumped by $26.5 billion. That’s about $100,000 earned per second,” says David A. Bell,historian, professor at Princeton University and specialist in the modern Atlantic world, in the columns of Great Continent. Only a few hours after the election, the rise in shares of his company Tesla brought him no less than 15 billion dollars, according to Forbes.
The richest man in the world owes this colossal breakthrough to a carefully crafted strategy: his rapprochement with Donald Trump. However, this proximity had given rise to a lot of concern, particularly around the cancellation of tax credits on electric vehicles competing with Tesla. In reality, Joe Biden’s successor rewarded the entrepreneur by appointing him to head a commission for “governmental efficiency”, so as to cut federal budgets. Between Trump and Musk, the understanding seems perfect, which contributes (greatly) to the iron health of the Tesla boss’s finances.
An express change of doctrine
Especially since Elon Musk has not always been on this line, assimilated to the American hard right. “Musk does not have a long history as a libertarian, or even a conservative. As recently as 2015, he claimed to have no interest in politics at all and to have voted primarily for Democratic presidential candidates. “, recalls David A. Bell, again for Le Grand Continent.
Elon Musk’s transformation took place at great speed. From March 2020, he increased the number of controversial and notable outings on Twitter about Covid-19. “The coronavirus panic is stupid,” he says. He describes the restrictions imposed as “fascist” and announces the reopening of Tesla’s production lines. Also in 2020, he denounced the “woke virus” after one of his children, transgender, no longer wanted to speak to him. In 2022, he finally bought X and continued his transformation, peddling various conspiracy theories associated with the American far right and changed his mind on climate change after several meetings with Donald Trump. In just a few months, Elon Musk has completely transformed himself.
Elon Musk’s fortune increased by $125 billion
As a reminder, Elon Musk spent no less than 200 million euros for Donald Trump’s campaign. At the same time, this “investment” brought him a whopping $125 billion, or 750 times his initial ticket since Donald Trump’s victory, until Monday January 20, 2025. The result of the American presidential election therefore had everything to delight Elon Musk.
During the campaign, the strong man of the social network After a social network, could Elon Musk or Donald Trump attack the country’s media by trying to enlist them? In Europe, Viktor Orban – Prime Minister of Hungary – and businessmen linked to the party Fidesz now hold 80% of the media. A model that could perhaps give ideas to Donald Trump in the future.