As the 2024 United States presidential race heats up, Elon Musk, unlike many of his SpaceX, Tesla, and X employees, has maintained his endorsement of former President Trump.
Musk’s employees, on the other hand, made significant donations to Trump’s rival, Kamala Harris, in November. Workers at Tesla have contributed $42,824 to Kamala Harris’s campaign, whereas they have only donated $24,840 to Trump’s campaign.
These numbers were reported by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks US presidential campaign data and lobbying data.
SpaceX and X’s employees have also chosen to donate to Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump
OpenSecrets did not limit itself to analyzing Tesla. The company also reported that Elon Musk’s employees at SpaceX have donated $34,526 to the Vice President’s election campaign whilst only donating $7,652 to former President Trump. Employees of X have also followed their colleagues at Tesla and SpaceX’s actions by donating $13,213 to Harris and less than $500 to Trump.
It is speculated that this might be a concern for Musk given that he has very publicly made comments about how important he feels a second Trump term would be for the country. These donations, despite being relatively small for a campaign, do show conflicting views between Elon Musk and his employees.
This is especially evident thanks to how Musk has chosen to label left-leaning views, as the “woke-mind virus.”
It has to be said, however, that Musk has not made any comments on the donation situation. Additionally, former President Donald Trump has publicly stated that, if elected, he would appoint Elon Musk to a new government efficiency commission.
Interestingly enough, many of Elon Musk’s employees are based in California, which is famously a Democratic stronghold. Although Musk has threatened to move the headquarters of his companies to Texas instead of California over the “last straw” gender identity law, many investors have resisted this because of the talent available in the state.
Musk continues to endorse Donald Trump despite his SpaceX, X employees backing Harris
Elon Musk has not abandoned his support for former President Donald Trump. Rather, he has increased it.
Since early voting is available, Musk has encouraged voters to support the former President, as doing otherwise may send “America into tyranny” and the Democrats should be voted out because they are “actually trying to make posting memes illegal.”
Musk has been especially worried about the effects illegal immigrants might have on the outcome of the election, especially those from Haiti. The wealthiest man in the world has continuously claimed Democrats are using and allowing the registration of illegal immigrants to seize power.
So far, there has been no evidence of this happening, but it has still been one of the main talking points of Elon Musk and some of his most loyal X followers.
It remains to be seen whether or not the clear discrepancy in views between Elon Musk and employees at Tesla, SpaceX, and X will have any effect whatsoever on both the election and the way the companies are run.
