Crypto News: Political snubs spurred Elon Musk into action

Max Chafkin joins the newsletter today to write about a new Businessweek podcast tracing the rise of billionaire Elon Musk as a major force in the 2024 presidential campaign. Plus: Joshua Green on why Democratic strategists have used Musk as a villain in campaign ads, how the global economy is splintering into blocs, and why strict migration laws are holding back impoverished women in Nepal. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

At the center of the 2024 election is a kind of mystery. Elon Musk—who as recently as a few months ago seemed to deny that he was even a supporter of former President Donald Trump, and who Trump called "another bullshit artist" as recently as 2022—has been traveling around Pennsylvania. He's been appearing at pro-Trump events in a Trump hat, shouting Trump slogans and writing giant checks to Trump supporters as part of an innovative, and quite possibly illegal, plan to persuade them to turn out to vote for his preferred candidate.

To those who had, until recently, thought of Musk as an apolitical tech guy, the transformation has been staggering: How did an entrepreneur known mostly for championing green technologies find his way to supporting a candidate who routinely criticizes those technologies? What, exactly, brought Musk and Trump together?

Photo illustration by 731. Photos: Getty Images (3), Bloomberg (1)

The answer to that question, the subject of a new Bloomberg podcast miniseries, Citizen Elon, might be that they weren't that different to begin with.

Musk, like Trump, is a bombastic self-promoter who, in addition to his work on rockets and electric cars (not to mention tunnels, brain implants, solar panels and artificial intelligence chatbots), spent decades enthusiastically marketing his own brand of genius. Musk, like Trump, has insisted on putting himself at the front of every project in which he's involved, using his identity as a key selling point. Musk, like Trump, grew up in relative privilege but regards any suggestion that he's anything other than self-made as a grievous insult.

And, like Trump, whose entrance into politics came after a perceived public snub by President Barack Obama, Musk's political journey started with a blow to his ego.

Read more about the podcast here: When Elon Musk Got Political

LISTEN: The miniseries is part of the Elon, Inc. podcast available now exclusively to Bloomberg audio subscribers. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, iHeart and the Bloomberg Terminal.

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A Trump campaign email urged supporters to buy the same "Dark MAGA" hat Musk wore at a Pennsylvania rally. Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The attack ad starts off in familiar fashion, with a narrator bashing Donald Trump for promising to cut taxes for his "rich as hell" friends. "I'm not rich as hell," says an ordinary-looking guy named Buddy, as he pumps gas into his car. "I'm the one that really needs the break. … The 1% don't serve anybody but themselves." The ad then flashes footage of a grinning, tuxedo-clad swell meant to personify the greedy billionaires Buddy says don't "pay their fair share" of taxes—it isn't Trump but Elon Musk.

The ad was produced by Future Forward USA Action, a liberal political action committee that's hardly alone in attacking the polarizing tech mogul and Trump donor. Musk, who famously voted for Barack Obama before beginning his rightward journey, has emerged as the Democrats' favorite villain, popping up in television and online ads from candidates and allied groups across the country, including those from Kamala Harris.

Democratic strategists say Musk's wealth, celebrity and noxious behavior make him a political villain straight out of central casting, a profile amplified by his outspoken embrace of Trump and the tens of millions of dollars that America PAC, his political outfit, has spent trying to defeat Harris and a slate of Democratic congressional candidates. The latest federal filings show that Musk has poured at least $75 million into the PAC, making him one of the top donors overall this cycle.

"In political ads, you're always looking for an identifiable image, metaphor or character that viewers will recognize and respond to emotionally," says Mark Longabaugh, a veteran ad maker for Bernie Sanders and Democratic candidates. "Elon is a powerful symbol of a rich jerk and the epitome of a MAGA-friendly billionaire bad guy. He's perfect."

Musk didn't respond to a request for comment, but as Joshua Green writes, he doesn't appear to be surprised by or concerned about the Democratic antipathy he's aroused: Elon Musk Is the Democrats' New Supervillain

Geopolitics is shaping the flow of trade and investment around the world in ways it hasn't in decades, fueling talk of another Cold War. Sandwiched between a US-led Western bloc and another dominated by Russia and China sit at least 101 nations that we've dubbed the New Neutrals. Members of this informal group are betting they can attract investment from both blocs and benefit economically if they avoid picking sides. And there's evidence that's happening.

Nicole Gorton-Caratelli, Shawn Donnan, Enda Curran and Dorothy Gambrell tell that story through graphics here: Not Picking Sides Is Paying Off for These Countries

Usha Kadari at home in the Nepalese village of Lalbiti. Photographer: Catherine Davison for Bloomberg Businessweek

The 32-inch TV on Usha Kadari's lap was a somewhat impractical carry-on during the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) bus ride home to Nepal.

The gift was an instant hit with her family, though. Her husband showed it off to jealous neighbors, and her 11-year-old daughter, Uma, sat in front of the screen endlessly scrolling through TikTok videos after school.

For Kadari herself, the TV was a symbol of hard-won success, bought with carefully saved earnings from her job as a domestic worker, cooking and cleaning for a wealthy family in neighboring India. In rural villages such as Lalbiti, employment opportunities are slim, so many households rely on money sent from family members working abroad. Remittances make up an estimated one-fourth of Nepal's economy.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to employment for women comes from the state itself. In 1998, after a death in Qatar, Nepal's government instituted a ban on women migrating abroad for domestic work—often the only form of employment available to unskilled workers like Kadari.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Nepalese women are emigrating every year. Read the full story from Catherine Davison here: Nepal's Women Evade Border Guards and Suspicious Husbands to Find Work Abroad

117F

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"I am not sure what fruitful purpose it serves other than being a club that the US is not a part of."

Jim O'Neill

Goldman Sachs economist who first coined the BRIC acronym

President Vladimir Putin will play host to Russia's biggest gathering of world leaders since the invasion of Ukraine and use the BRICS summit to show the US and its allies that he's no pariah.

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