Elon Musk’s Favorability Is Similar To Donald Trump’s, Poll Finds | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk, clad in tuxedo and black tie, took the stage at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after the election with all of the swagger of the profitable candidate himself.

“The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear, the clearest mandate. The people have spoken. The people want change,” Musk informed the viewers of Trump’s largest donors, marketing campaign leaders and appointment seekers. “We are going to shake things up. It’s going to be a revolution.”

Musk’s attachment to Trump has created an alliance between America’s strongest politician and its richest businessman — and roughly the identical percentages of Americans have favorable views of every, in accordance with a brand new ballot from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Experts are cut up on whether or not that overlap in public opinion is an efficient or dangerous factor for Musk’s companies or for Trump’s politics. But it might have far-reaching results in each realms.

Musk, whose web price tops $400 billion, oversees six companies whereas persevering with to work carefully with Trump: electrical automotive producer Tesla, the X social media platform, house expertise firm SpaceX, mind hyperlink firm Neuralink, the startup xAI and tunneling operator The Boring Co.

“Even though there’s a negative impact, in terms of potentially alienating some of their customers that might not be fans of Trump, the benefits far outweigh any negatives when it comes to having a right-hand seat next to Trump in the White House,” mentioned Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, recognized himself as an investor in Musk’s Tesla and a driver of Tesla’s new Cybertruck, the futuristic pickup that has gotten big quantities of consideration but in addition been the topic of security considerations and a number of remembers.

“Having your CEO not working at your company and working at the job of having to fire government employees … as a shareholder, I’m paying someone to not work for my company,” he mentioned. “As a Cybertruck owner with self-driving that sucks and doesn’t work, I’m like, ‘Dude, this isn’t fair.’”

But regardless of his skepticism, Gerber mentioned he received’t cease investing in Musk’s companies.

“I’ve made a lot of money with Elon,” he mentioned. “I’m not in the business of investing based on the popularity of CEOs.”

Musk doesn’t seem to provide Trump a lot increase with individuals who don’t again the incoming president.

He isn’t any extra standard with the U.S. public than the president-elect himself, and considered unfavorably by about half of Americans, in accordance with the AP-NORC ballot.

About 4 in 10 Americans have a considerably or very favorable view of the world’s richest individual, similar to the share who view Trump positively. Likewise, about half of adults have a considerably or very unfavorable view of Musk — once more, just like Trump.

Instead, mentioned one political strategist, Musk is the perfect validator for somebody who cultivates a picture of success in enterprise and who has stocked his Cabinet and key adviser roles with billionaires.

“Trump has always pushed this narrative that he’s a successful developer and a very successful businessman. I think having Musk with him is his double-down on this business success, good-for-the-economy, good-for-everybody-making money kind of persona,” mentioned Christine Matthews, a nationwide political pollster who has labored for Republicans. “In this case, Musk is seen as this successful, innovative, tech entrepreneur, frontier-buster.”

Musk additionally has at his disposal X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter that he bought and changed into a megaphone for conservative concepts. And having spent an estimated $250 million to help Trump within the election, Musk has signaled he’s keen to again Republican main challenges to GOP members within the House and Senate in search of reelection in 2026 who waver on Trump’s appointments and agenda.

Trump has tasked him with main a gaggle to scale back the scale of the federal authorities and cut back the rulemaking authority of the federal forms.

Tesla stands to make vital features underneath a Trump administration with the specter of diminished subsidies for different power and electrical automobiles doing probably the most hurt to smaller opponents. Trump’s plans for intensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it much less possible that Chinese EVs will probably be offered in bulk within the U.S. anytime quickly.

Some analysts imagine the billionaire’s function will create a really pleasant panorama for Tesla over the approaching years. Ives, the analyst at Wedbush Securities, mentioned Musk’s relationship with Trump might “revolutionize the Tesla story, especially around robotics, AI and autonomous.”

Investors, he mentioned, are betting on Musk and see his political ascent as a “champagne moment.” Unlike Gerber, Ives believes that ending the EV credit score and taking subsidies from Detroit carmakers, Hyundai and different firms will create solely alternative for Tesla.

“I think Wall Street is starting to fully digest the potential benefits from Musk,” Ives mentioned.

Tesla shares closed at a report excessive on Tuesday, with a lot of the corporate’s current features coming after Trump’s victory. But Gerber feels that leap is as a result of buyers imagine Tesla can have a bonus relating to autonomous driving as a result of Trump might grant the corporate a nationwide autonomy license.

Still, he thinks Tesla would be the “big loser” of Musk’s companies due to Trump’s promise to finish the EV tax credit score for carmakers.

“For Tesla, I don’t see a ton of benefit from this,” he mentioned. “Elon is misleading people to say it hurts the competition if the credit goes away.”

Musk’s different firms — together with his synthetic intelligence firm, xAI — might reap the advantages of working throughout the Trump administration, he mentioned.

“AI is a transformative investment that will create lots of regulatory and governmental issues, especially around safety and information,” Gerber mentioned. “There’s a lot of benefit, from an AI perspective, to having Elon where he is.”

The relationship between the 2 males has no parallel in U.S. historical past, mentioned David Nasaw, biographer of American enterprise tycoons Andrew Carnegie and William Randolph Hearst. He famous that Musk, to a degree in contrast to different tycoons, has relied on subsidies and favorable authorities selections for his success from Tesla to SpaceX.

“He’s a unicorn,” Nasaw mentioned of Musk.

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Parvini reported from Los Angeles.