Ва-банк на півмільярда: чому Маск знову підтримує Трампа та республіканців

02.11.2026, 06:00◉ 03 min readEditorial team “SHCHO STALOSIA”

Влітку 2025 року Ілон Маск публічно бив горщики із Дональдом Трампом та обіцяв давати менше грошей політикам. А тепер не шкодує рекордні пожертви республіканцям перед виборами.

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Ва-банк на півмільярда: чому Маск знову підтримує Трампа та республіканців

Before the presidential election of 2024 in the United States, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who had previously voted for Democrats for years and allocated funds to both parties, publicly supported Republican Donald Trump.

But within six months, the billionaire quarreled with the president and his team. As it seemed to many at the time, it was irrevocable: Musk even promised to create his own political party.

But emotions faded, and political and business pragmatism won: Trump needs Musk's audience, and Elon needs access to contracts and less rigidity of regulators. Therefore, on the eve of the 2026 midterm elections to Congress, they reconciled, and Musk became the largest donor of Republicans.

The billionaire understands perfectly well: Democrats, in case of victory, can not only collapse his political influence, but also create problems for business through inspections, investigations and multibillion-dollar fines. Therefore, it seems that Elon is going all-in, having spent $475 million on the elections.

Details

However, by the summer of 2025, Musk left the Doge and the White House with a tarnished reputation: he did not fulfill his promise to reduce the US national debt (the debt is only growing), harmed his business reputationally and quarreled with key team members Trump is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief Trade Advisor Peter Navarro, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Context

Almost $300 million donations, large-scale campaigning on social network X and personal participation at a rally in one of the key states – Pennsylvania – opened many doors for Elon after Trump's return to the White House in January 2025: from the leadership of the Department government Effectiveness (doge) before turning the White House lawn into a showroom for Tesla and getting new contracts with the Pentagon and NASA for SpaceX.

How does Musk want to merge SpaceX and Tesla by the end of the Trump era? And how are the Democrats going to punish Elon after the election?

What's next

Returning to business management in the summer of 2025, Musk claimed he had “already spent enough on politics.” However, he has not completely severed ties with the White House. “I expect to continue to provide advice when the president wants it,” the billionaire said.

On September 29, 2026, Musk sat next to Trump during his meeting with AI market leaders. And the very next day, his "comeback" was officially announced: the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX will be one of the leaders of the Pentagon's study on the future of warfare (Project Meridian).