Elon Musk’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump was intended to boost the candidate’s chances in November. But more than a month after Musk officially threw his weight behind Trump, a series of Democratic attacks suggested the endorsement revealed weakness.
After the tech billionaire endorsed Trump on July 13, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign repeatedly attacked Musk for his anti-worker stances. The campaign called Musk and Trump”self-absorbed rich boys” and reposted audio of the two laughing together on Musk’s social media app X. dismissal of striking employees.
Harris allies, including United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, have followed suit with their own attacks, and now some Democratic strategists are eager to highlight a Musk-Trump alliance that strengthens Trump’s weaknesses.
“Every time Elon Musk tries to do something to help Donald Trump, I think that triggers the Democratic base to work against him,” said Chicago-based Democratic strategist Pete Giangreco.
“If you have a billionaire helping someone who says they’re a billionaire but isn’t, what does that get you?” he said.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment on the Democratic attacks or the impact of his confirmation.
Musk’s endorsement was supposed to hurt Trump’s campaign like a lighting bolt. He announced this on the day that the former president survived the assassination attempt. His support signaled that Trump would all cash and social media firepower he had to take back the White House, and that added to the perception that Trump had gained a large share America’s tech industry and the entrepreneurial class.
Musk’s endorsement was controversial the highest profile and this election cycle has been coveted its unprecedented mix access to wealth, fame and media.
But the weeks since then have been defined by stumbles and missed opportunities. Two men clearly disagreed About how much money Musk will invest. Musk’s super PAC passed a main staff shakeup shortly after launch. And many other Big Tech donors have refused to follow Musk’s lead. to choose instead Sign up for the Harris campaign.
What followed was a live one-on-one at X, billed by the Trump campaign as the “interview of the century.” Halfway through the two-hour event, Trump explained how much he admired Musk’s work with unions.
“I’m watching what you’re doing. You go in and you just say, ‘You want to get out?'” Trump said with a laugh.
“Yeah,” Musk chimed in with a laugh.
“They’re going on strike,” Trump said. “I won’t name the company, but they go on vacation and you say, ‘Okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone, so every one of you is gone.’ And you are the greatest.”
The Harris campaign quickly took off With an inscription in X 7.2 million views. And wrote about the exchange at least three times.
Harris’s campaign added in the statement shortly after the event: “Trump’s entire campaign is at the service of Elon Musk and his ilk – self-made rich guys who will sell out the middle class and not be able to go live in 2024.” (The event was like this 40 minutes late with technical difficulties.)
The episode snowed. The United Auto Workers Union appealed unfair labor practice charges Against Musk and Trump, they argued that they interfered with workers who might want to exercise their labor rights. Fain of the UAW brought up the issue in media interviews. Acting Minister of Labor Julie Su he said at the event At the Democratic National Convention: “You can’t be pro-Elon Musk and pro-labor.”
Sean O’Brien, president of the International Team Brotherhood, spoke at the event Republican National Convention condemned Trump and Musk’s comments in July.economic terrorism.”
The right of American workers to strike guaranteed By the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
Criticism of unions is likely to embolden some of the Democratic base, said Chuck Coughlin, a Republican-leaning campaign consultant.
“If I were the Harris campaign, I would lean on that,” he said.
Harris leads Trump by 10 points among people who live in union housing, according to the union Fox News survey It was held on August 9-12.
Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist in Texas, said the Democrats appear to have come out of the playbook they used to defeat Mitt Romney in 2012. have a casual attitude towards job cuts.
“They want to make Trump and Elon and people like them look like plutocrats,” he said.
Steinhauser said the danger for Republicans is that the message could resonate in strong union states like Michigan.
“If delivered effectively, it can land. I don’t think it will land, but it might,” he said, adding that in a crowded media environment, any message is hard to crack.
Musk has long opposed organized labor and fought allegations of illegal anti-labor practices. At Tesla, SpaceX and X. In 2018, he tweeted that unionized Tesla workers would lose stock options, which Tesla’s lawyers defended.employer exit.”
In January, Musk responded to the National Labor Relations Board’s lawsuit against SpaceX with the opposite suit asking a federal court to enjoin the NLRB’s system of administrative law judges unconstitutional.
Trade union leaders they voiced harsh critical opinions Trump’s time in office, citing his appointment of conservatives to the NLRB and federal courts. At the same time, Trump has tried to maintain some ties with organized labor by inviting some union leaders to the White House during his presidency and continued Suing the Teamsters.
Seth Harris, a former labor policy adviser to President Joe Biden and senior fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University, said he believes Trump wants to be vague about unions. more difficult.
“Elon Musk created an opportunity for Donald Trump to portray himself as rabidly anti-union, and he did so by extolling Elon Musk’s anti-union, union-busting perspective and supporting the idea of illegally firing striking workers,” he said.
Harris, who is not related to Kamala Harris, said he considered Musk’s endorsement a net negative.
“No one sees Elon Musk as the voice of the middle class,” he said. “Musk is a brazen corporate overlord who is doing everything in his power to destroy organizing efforts at Tesla and SpaceX.”
David Nasaw, author of books on business tycoons such as William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Carnegie, questioned Musk’s ability to woo voters: “Even those who think he’s a genius with artificial intelligence, technology and space travel, it doesn’t make sense. presidential campaigns”.
“I’m trying to think of the demographics that would be affected by Musk repeating Trump’s attacks,” he said. “If they don’t believe Trump, will they suddenly side with Musk because he says he’s right?”
Nasaw said he sees parallels with Hearst, the newspaper and radio baron who used his media empire to try to defeat President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 and 1940s, using his media empire to foment opposition. Musk showed similar aspirations when he bought Xi in 2022, and he often uses the program to attack Harris and Biden.
“When it came to the election, nobody trusted Hearst, and there was no reason to trust Hearst. I think the same applies to Musk.”
“He once had a legion of Musk brothers hanging on his every word — believing he was not just a genius, but a genius dedicated to saving the planet,” he said. “I don’t think so anymore.”
Nasaw said he believes Musk is “too far away” to attract broad support. antisemitic statements and his views on birth rates.
a March survey by Grinnell College47% of the respondents said that they had a positive opinion about him, and 37% had a negative opinion. For comparison, in the same survey, Taylor Swift was rated 52% positively and 32% negatively. It is his potential support in the presidential race but also highly anticipated.
Musk topped a USA Today/Suffolk University poll in May sixth most effective The kingmaker is the celebrity kingmaker, just behind Oprah Winfrey, with 15.2% of respondents saying Musk’s endorsement for president would influence their vote “a lot” or “a little.” But the poll showed his influence was largely confined to Republicans, suggesting he may not be able to bring many Democratic-leaning voters into the Trump camp.
Musk and Trump have similar fan bases, Coughlin said.
“I see it as drawing from the same well,” he said.
Both Trump and Musk discussed the possibility Musk is serving in the second Trump administration, at least in an advisory capacity.
In recent years, Musk has hesitated whether to support not only Trump, but also the candidate throughout this election cycle. Musk he said In 2022, Trump should not seek the White House again and often describes himself as a former Democrat.
Back in March, Musk hit a pose of neutrality in the presidential race.
“To be clear, I am not donating money to any of the candidates for the presidency of the United States,” he said Posted in Xthree days later He met with Trump during breakfast in Palm Beach.
Two months after taking office, Musk created a super PAC, a type of political action committee that can raise unlimited money for independent political activity that is not coordinated with a candidate. America’s PAC is now running ads supporting Trump and opposing Harris.
Seth Masket, a political science professor at the University of Denver who studies the power of endorsements, says the endorsement of a celebrity or media purveyor can sometimes make a difference in primaries. Winfrey stepped up then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2007 with his support.
But the evidence for confirmation in general elections, especially in a relatively polarized era, is weak, he said.
“Even an endorsement from a very famous person isn’t going to change a lot of people’s minds,” he said.
Musk’s ownership of X increases his potential influence: He has more than 195 million followers on X and sometimes controls its algorithm. pushes its posts higher in the ribbon. But X remains a smaller app than rivals like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube its growth slowed.
“I don’t know how many people who are undecided in this race rely on Twitter,” Masket said, using X’s previous name.
Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego who studies endorsements, said if Musk’s endorsement sways voters, it will likely be among a very specific group.
“In this techno-libertarian, young voter world, there are a lot of people who are out of their ways and tied to one party or another.” Kousser said. “They can win this election”
But as Trump’s poll numbers have dipped, Musk has shown signs of dampening enthusiasm, if not overt signs of buyer’s remorse. Despite initial discussions, Musk did not speak at the Republican National Convention Between Trump and his allies for him to do so.
On July 22, Musk said, two days after Trump bragged to a crowd in Michigan that Musk was “giving me $45 million a month.” the number was not correct. He added in X that he would give “at a much lower level.” So far, Musk’s name has not appeared publicly as a donor campaign finance disclosures Except for a $10,000 donation to the Utah Republican Party, there is a delay in reporting.
“If he follows through on his promises to donate tons of cash and that money is well spent by the Trump campaign, it could have an impact,” biographer Nasaw said.
“But I don’t see any signs, firstly, that he will deliver and deliver the money he promised, and secondly, that the Trump campaign is organized to use this money,” he said.