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Elon Musk appears to be emulating Donald Trump’s playbook.
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Tesla’s CEO, like the former president, also seems to be immune to scandals.
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Supporters of both Musk and Trump seem willing to overlook their sometimes questionable behavior.
Elon Musk appears to be taking a page from Donald Trump’s playbook.
The Tesla CEO once took a jab at the former president for being too old to run for the White House again, essentially suggesting he would sail off into the sunset.
But now it seems Musk is increasingly looking to Trump as an example of how to play the public relations game — from the way he prematurely declares victory, to the feuds he starts and the scandals he navigates.
The approach could serve him well.
Take, for example, the almost Trump-esque way in which Musk, without any attribution, prematurely declared victory in securing his massive pay package, many hours before an official announcement from Tesla.
Musk decided to celebrate early on X, declaring that the vote passed by “large margins.” If that’s the case, it’s certainly a win for Tesla’s CEO.
Headache ahead
Trump, of course, is now a convicted felon who still faces a slew of pending lawsuits. Yet Musk is also confronted with his own headaches.
Eight former SpaceX employees have filed a lawsuit against him, claiming they were wrongfully fired for speaking out against a hostile work environment in 2022.
Then there are new claims from The Wall Street Journal that Musk is blurring the lines with the women who work for him. That story also included a claim that Musk asked a SpaceX employee to have his babies, before denying her a promotion when she refused.
Immune to scandals
Musk also seems to be immune to scandals in a similar way to Trump.
Both have the support of some prominent Silicon Valley figures. Reuters reported that tech venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted a fundraiser in San Francisco for the Republican presidential candidate earlier this month.
And as for Musk, no matter how outrageous the scandals are, he can always count on the support of his many fans at X.
Following Trump’s playbook doesn’t seem to have hurt his payday ambitions at all. If Musk has won shareholder approval, they apparently overlooked some Trumpy tendencies — such as feuding with many of his tech colleagues.
Zuck feud
One of Musk’s long-running battles was a nearly eight-year feud with Mark Zuckerberg, during which he challenged Meta’s CEO to a cage fight.
Most recently, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing the ChatGPT maker of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft — although that lawsuit was dropped Tuesday for unknown reasons.
There is also the drug use. Musk admitted in his interview with Don Lemon in March that he takes a “small amount” of ketamine every other week. When Lemon questioned him further, Musk seemed to suggest that Wall Street had no problem with it.
Supporters of both Musk and Trump seem very willing to overlook behavior that smaller public figures might not get away with.
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal business hours.
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