New York, Oct 29
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has emerged as both a surrogate for Donald Trump and a lightning rod for the Republican’s campaign.
The CEO of electric carmaker Tesla, and Space X, which has set its sight on human colonies on Mars, and with a controlling interest in the social media platform X that was once known as Twitter, as well as a slew of tech and science companies, Musk has been out campaigning for and with Donald Trump.
In an unlikely partnership, the global warming sceptic and the prolific maker of electric cars have taken a shine to each other and Trump waxes eloquent on the technological accomplishments of Musk, especially his rockets, making hand gestures to show how his Starship booster rocket safely landed.
But in many of his campaign speeches, Trump has ridiculed the performance of electric cars, which provided the liftoff to Musk’s other enterprises, because President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have ensured tax breaks for those buying it as a way of fighting climate change.
Trump has announced that he would be appointing the 53-year-old South Africa-born entrepreneur as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he has proposed to reduce federal spending.
On Sunday at a campaign rally here, Musk said he would cut $2 trillion from the government’s $6.5 billion budget.