The 2024 election season showcased numerous candidates’ campaigns via various platforms, with funding often fueled by donations. The affluent Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spearheaded the American Political Action Committee (PAC), composed of Musk and other prominent businessmen, dedicated to funding Republican candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. By heavily funding candidates focused on supporting the upper class, Musk, along with his America PAC partners, used his assets to perpetuate destruction of democracy by distorting public policy and promoting an elitist agenda, opposed to merely exercising his constitutional right.
Throughout the campaign, Musk leveraged his social media platform X — previously known as Twitter — promoting the Election Integrity Community, the America PAC’s X Community where users spread conspiracy theories, misinformation, and rumors regarding voter fraud throughout the election season. Approaching the election, X’s AI-powered trending section promoted voter-fraud conspiracy theories and libel against Trump’s opposing candidate Kamala Harris.
Aside from his social media influence, Musk heavily funded the America PAC, donating $119 million to the America PAC’s total contribution of $200 million. The American PAC’s elite stakeholders strongly supported Trump’s presidency and financial policies significantly benefitting the upper class overall.
Trump’s campaign emphasized his extension of the nationwide tax cuts he enacted during his presidential term in 2017 mostly benefited the upper class. According to the Tax Policy Center, households with incomes in the top one percent were projected to receive a cut of over $60,000, compared to a cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60 percent.
This disparity is detrimental to the lower class; extending the 2017 tax cuts would cost the government $3.8 trillion over the next decade. According to the Brookings Institution, the government must drastically cut public services funded by federal taxes to avoid significantly inflating federal debt. For the 25% of U.S. households relying on the nation’s social security benefits, 18.9% of Americans reliant on Medicare in 2023, and over 95,000 public schools nationwide, these cuts threaten reducing quality of life and a potential complete loss of these resources. This would widen America’s socioeconomic gaps even further, leading the rich to become richer and forcing the struggling to struggle even more.
Specifically, Musk’s contributions to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign led to direct governmental power, with Trump appointing Musk, who has no previous political experience or official expertise, to co-lead his new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). DOGE was proposed to “pave the way for [Trump’s] Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” according to Trump. This action sets the impression that one is able to buy political power, tarnishing the fair, inclusive goals of democracy and equality America prides itself on.
While the presidential election is not the sole determiner of policies, the president undoubtedly has the ultimate say as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. From allocating funding and shaping policy agendas to appointing individuals to power, Trump’s election to office gives him authority over key governmental decisions. By funding Trump and contributing to such causes, Musk unethically exchanged money for the power to slash government spending through the DOGE, supporting Trump’s elitist agenda.
The upper class’s self-serving motives pushed Trump’s policies to win, ignoring the extended socioeconomic disparities that would likely be afflicted. Musk’s self-prioritization over the American people has exemplified how the integrity of elections depends not solely on fair votes, but the integrity of those who influence them.
