After that, around 40 million dollars (37.8 million euros) were added until the presidential election on November 5th. According to the non-governmental organization OpenSecrets, this is the largest sum ever donated by a single donor. According to the Washington Post, Musk exceeded the amount provided by bank heir Tim Mellon for Trump in this year’s election campaign by $80 million.
Trump has appointed the head of the electric car maker Tesla and the space company SpaceX to head a new department for efficient government. Together with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk will act as an external advisor to the government to ensure that hundreds of billions of dollars are saved in the government apparatus.
Through his alliance with the right-wing populist, the high-tech entrepreneur and richest person in the world now has considerable influence over the US government, which raises the question of massive conflicts of interest. He could use his work as a government advisor to promote the abolition of authorities that regulate his companies.
His activity could also lead to further contracts for his companies. SpaceX sends military satellites into space, takes astronauts to the ISS space station and is intertwined with the Pentagon and NASA in many ways. According to information from the New York Times, last year alone the Musk companies received public contracts worth three billion dollars (2.85 billion euros).
