Elon Musk has revealed why he really wants Donald Trump to win the presidential election, and it has nothing to do with border politics or tax-breaks for billionaires.
While speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Summit in Saudi Arabia, Musk said SpaceX‘s ability to colonize Mars rides heavily on the Republican nominee getting back into office.
‘I feel more optimistic about it with a Trump White House than a non-Trump White House,’ he said.
If Musk’s vision comes true, the first crewed mission to the Red Planet would launch in 2027 and the first human boots on the Martian landscape two years later.
The SpaceX CEO admitted the timeline was ambitious, but suggested that electing Kamala Harris would not result in the deregulation needed to clear the way for his goal.
He claimed that under President Joe Biden‘s administration, it has become ‘almost illegal’ to launch space missions, despite the fact that SpaceX has launched over 300 rockets since 2020 – more than any other commercial spaceflight company.
‘It takes longer to get the permit to launch than to build a giant rocket,’ Musk continued.
The claims were likely due to Trump’s big push into space during his first term, signing an order that aimed at returning Americans to the moon and being the first to Mars.
‘I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low-Earth orbit activity—big deal,’ Trump said in 2016.
‘Instead, we will refocus its mission on space exploration. Under a Trump Administration, Florida and America will lead the way into the stars.’
Trump’s presidency had demonstrated that he is aligned with Musk’s goals for space exploration in a number of ways.
The former president’s Space Policy Directive 1, signed in December 2017, set a goal to return American astronauts to the moon and establish a permanent presence there, laying the foundation for human missions to Mars.
‘We’re stopping at the moon. The moon is actually a launching pad. That’s why we’re stopping at the moon,’ the Republican candidate said in 2019.
‘I said, ‘Hey, we’ve done the moon. That’s not so exciting.’ So we’ll be doing the moon. But we’ll really be doing Mars.’
This directive also specifically called for commercial and international partnerships in space exploration, recognizing the pivotal role that private companies – like SpaceX – can play in the US space sector.
And most importantly, Trump favors deregulation. The former president’s Space Policy Directive 2 aimed to streamline commercial space regulations to encourage rapid growth and innovation for private space companies.
In 2017, he stated: ‘At some point in the future, we’re going to look back and say, ‘How did we do it without space?’
Since officially endorsing Trump in July, the billionaire has become its second-biggest financial backer, donating tens of millions of dollars to his campaign.
And on Monday, Philadelphia’s District Attorney’s office sued Musk and his super PAC over the group’s $1 million giveaway to randomly selected swing state voters who sign a petition on the PAC’s website.
The petition pledges signers’ support for the First and Second Amendments, but only registered voters in swing states are eligible for the giveaway.
Musk has also attended multiple Trump rallies and made his first on-stage appearance in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5.
It seems Musk believes Trump would uphold this track record if re-elected, helping him rapidly advance toward the future he envisions for SpaceX and the commercial space industry at large.
‘With Trump in office, Musk may expect a more favorable regulatory environment for his ventures, including Tesla and SpaceX,’ Michael Breen, associate professor at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, Ireland, told Newsweek.
‘Like many Silicon Valley billionaires, Musk resists any limitations on what he perceives as his personal freedom,’ he added.
At today’s FII summit, a gathering of global leaders, investors, policy makers and innovators, Musk said he’s taken on a ‘significant role,’ in the 2024 presidential election – alluding to his steadfast support for Trump.
But even before the summit, Musk repeatedly stated that excessive regulations impede innovation and progress toward becoming a ‘multiplanetary species,’ which is the driving goal of SpaceX.
‘Voting for Trump is voting for Mars! Unless we stop the slow strangulation by overregulation happening in America, we will never become a multiplanetary civilization,’ he posted on X.
Through SpaceX, Musk seeks to build a future where humanity has established permanent settlements on Mars.
But he still had a long way to go to make that future a reality.
His stance likely stems from regulatory obstacles that SpaceX has faced in the past, including delayed launch approvals and other restrictions imposed by federal agencies.
Musk has repeatedly argued that many of these regulations are outdated and overly restrictive, slowing down innovation within SpaceX and other commercial spaceflight companies.
‘Unless there is significant government reform, laws & regulations will keep getting worse every year until every great endeavor from high-speed rail between our cities to making life multiplanetary, is effectively illegal, Musk previously stated.
This all suggests that Musk sees his investment in the Trump campaign as an investment in the future of SpaceX, and in his eyes, the future of humanity.
