Elon Musk's loyal staff reveal who they are really backing after the billionaire threw his support behind Trump
Elon Musk has endorsed Republican former President Donald Trump in the race for the White House, but employees at his companies are largely donating to Kamala Harris.
Musk has demanded hard work and loyalty amongst his employees, having previously fired X - formerly Twitter - employees who criticized him.
Workers at Tesla have contributed $42,824 to Harris' presidential campaign versus $24,840 to Trump's campaign, according to OpenSecrets.
Employees at Musk's rocket company SpaceX have donated $34,526 to Harris versus $7,652 to Trump.
Even workers at the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, have donated $13,213 to Harris versus less than $500 to Trump.
Elon Musk has endorsed Republican former President Donald Trump in the race for the White House , but employees at his companies are largely donating to Kamala Harris
Workers at Tesla have contributed $42,824 to Harris' campaign versus $24,840 to Trump's. Employees at SpaceX donated $34,526 to Harris versus $7,652 to Trump. Even workers at X, formerly known as Twitter , have donated $13,213 to Harris versus under $500 to Trump
While the figures are relatively small for campaign fundraising, they indicate political leanings at odds with Musk's own.
The world's richest man, Musk has boosted Trump on X and dismissed left-leaning ideas as a 'woke-mind virus.'
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He backed President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since then.
Biden outraged Elon Musk when he said a rival EV executive had 'electrified the entire automobile industry' in America.
When he said that about General Motors CEO Mary Barra in 2021, he gave the cold shoulder to Musk, the Tesla billionaire who most credit with the popularity of electric vehicles in the United States.
Whether he knew it or not, Biden planted a seed that day that has led Musk - a 2020 Biden voter who claimed to have never cast a ballot for Republicans - toward an alliance with Donald Trump.
Tesla and Musk were outraged by Biden showing the company the cold shoulder but Democrats as a whole seemed to be drawing Musk's ire as the Biden presidency went on.
'When Democratic lawmakers endlessly attack someone, the answer becomes 'screw you.' He's human, and when people are using you for political fodder, of course you will react in a certain way,' said former Michael Bloomberg campaign manager Bradley Tusk.
While the figures are relatively small for campaign fundraising, they indicate political leanings at odds with Musk's own
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He backed President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since then
Despite some efforts by those close to Biden, Musk started to notice that the White House was coming after him, the the Federal Trade Commission and US Justice Department investigating X and Tesla.
All of these issues have snowballed into an avalanche which has led Musk to make friends with Capitol Hill's Republicans, despite Tesla benefitting from Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and Musk's personal wealth growing during the Biden presidency.
Musk said he believed he and the Republican Party were more closely aligned on their 'core values' than he and the Democrats.
'One of those values being meritocracy, as much meritocracy as possible, so you get ahead as a function of your skill, and nothing else,' he said.
Musk has also become more aligned with the GOP on social issues after revealing he claimed he was 'tricked' by the 'woke mind virus' into allowing one of his sons to become a transgender woman.
He said the PAC supported freedom from 'as much government intervention as possible' and claimed the state was more restrictive every year.
Trump has responded by saying that if he wins the November 5 election, he will appoint Musk to lead a government efficiency commission.
'He's a very smart guy. I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He's a brilliant guy,' Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
President Joe Biden (pictured left) allegedly infuriated Tesla CEO Elon Musk after an event with Mary Barra (pictured right) - the CEO of General Motors - where he called her and GM the company that 'electrified the entire automobile industry' in America
Musk was not invited to the event and had to watch as Barra - whose General Motors had produced just 26 EVs compared to Tesla's 115,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021 - be hailed by Biden as having 'electrified the entire automobile industry'
Musk responded to the comments on X today with just five words: 'I am willing to serve.'
The CEO of X, formerly known as Twitter, also shared a picture of himself standing behind a podium with the words 'Department Of Government Efficiency' and 'D.O.G.E etched onto it.
The sign appears to be a reference to Dogecoin, a joke cryptocurrency that Musk aggressively promoted in 2021 causing its value to soar.
The OpenSecrets data includes donations from company employees and owners and those individuals' immediate family members.
Campaign finance laws prohibit companies themselves from donating to federal campaigns.
Many of Musk's employees are based in California, a Democratic stronghold, said Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, which is a Tesla shareholder. Gerber is also an investor in X.
In July, Musk said he would move X and SpaceX headquarters to Texas from California because of a California gender-identity law he called the 'last straw.'
Gerber said such a move would mean 'losing out on a lot of potential talent' in California.
Eventually, Musk decided to aim higher than Sanders or Warren, publicly stating his dislike of Biden in 2022 after he'd praised GM and Ford's EVs, neglecting Tesla one more time
In 2022, Musk fired more than a dozen Twitter employees who criticized him on an internal messaging system.
The axed tech workers were informed by email that they had been 'terminated immediately' because they 'violated company policy'.
They allegedly made critical comments about the new CEO on the company's Slack messaging system - resulting in them being laid off by the new billionaire boss.
And the new Twitter leader confirmed the culling himself - saying that he would 'like to apologize for firing these geniuses.'
Musk sarcastically said that their 'immense talent' can be used elsewhere.
Platformer, a news outlet which covers social networks, reported 'around 20 people have been fired so far for their Slack posts'.
One former staff member tweeted out a screenshot of the unceremonious sacking email from Twitter HR - which read: 'We regret to inform you that your employment is terminated effective immediately.
'Your recent behavior has violated company policy. Our operations team will be reaching out to you with offboarding instructions.'
Musk admitted that he fired Twitter workers after staff were informed by email that they had been 'terminated immediately'
The email was sent at 2.27am from an email account named Twitter HR.
In a follow up Tweet, the former staffer added: 'My twitter account was protected at the time, so I can only assume this was for not showing 100% loyalty in slack. I’ve heard the same thing has happened to many others now.'
It comes after Musk, who completed a $44 billion buyout of the social media platform in October of 2022, apparently fired an employee publicly via Twitter.
Twitter has been embroiled in several controversies since Musk completed the $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.
He fired much of its full-time workforce by email soon after the deal was completed, and then got rid of thousands of contractors, hollowing out teams that battle misinformation.
Shortly after the layoffs, he asked dozens of employees to come back.
