Billionaire CEO is well connected in the US and China, something that could smooth the road ahead for the electric vehicle maker amid a looming tariff war
If it pays to have friends in high places, few among us can claim to be better placed than Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and one of the only people to have cosy relationships with both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. His commercial and political connections to both may prove pivotal as the feud between the US and China plays out over the next four years, particularly as Trump promises steep tariffs.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, once supported Joe Biden. But his relationship with the current US president soured over the past four years as, among other insults, Musk felt that the White House gave Telsa, his car and green energy company, “the cold shoulder”. Trump, meanwhile, has described Tesla as “incredible” even while pledging to do away with subsidies for electric vehicles. This year, Musk formally endorsed Trump as the presidential candidate, campaigned for him online and off and donated more than $100m to his re-election effort.
Musk’s loyalty has been rewarded with his appointment as the leader of a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which, despite its name, will be an advisory body, not a government agency. But perhaps more important for the global economy than his official role will be the influence he has on the dynamic between the leaders of the world’s two superpowers. With a trade war that was started by Trump and expanded by Biden, and mounting geopolitical tensions, the US-China relationship has been tumbling downhill for years, with negative global consequences, not least for consumers in the US and China, who have seen prices rise as a result.
Unlike the other figures in Trump’s newly appointed cabinet, such as China hawk Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state who has been hit with sanctions by Beijing, Musk has a cosy relationship with China’s top leaders.
