Elon Musk reveals why he REALLY wants Donald Trump to win the White House – and it’s out of this world

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.

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Summit in Saudi Arabia, Musk said SpaceX’s ability to colonize Mars depends heavily on the return of the Republican candidate.

“I’m more optimistic about a Trump White House than a Trump-less White House,” he said.

If Musk’s vision comes to fruition, the first manned mission to the Red Planet would launch in 2027, with the first human boots on the Martian landscape a year later.

SpaceX’s CEO admitted the timeline was ambitious, but suggested it that the election of Kamala Harris would not result in the deregulation necessary to pave the way for his goal.

He claimed that it has become “almost illegal” to launch space missions under President Joe Biden’s administration, despite the fact that SpaceX has launched more than 300 rockets since 2020 — more than any other commercial space company.

“It takes longer to get the permit to launch than it does 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 aimed at returning Americans to the moon and being the first to go to Mars.

“I will free NASA from the constraint of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low Earth orbit activities — big deal,” Trump said in 2016.

“Instead, we will refocus the mission on space exploration. Under the Trump administration, Florida and America will lead the way to the stars.”

Trump’s presidency has shown that he aligns 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 the goal of returning American astronauts to the moon and establishing a permanent presence there, laying the groundwork for human missions to Mars.

‘We stop at the moon. The moon is actually a launching pad. That’s why we stop at the moon,” the Republican candidate said in 2019.

“I said, ‘Hey, we did the moon.’ That’s not so exciting.’ So we’re going to do the moon. But we’re really going to do Mars.’

This directive also specifically called for commercial and international partnerships in space exploration, recognizing the critical role that private companies – such as SpaceX – can play in the US space sector.

And most importantly: Trump is in favor of 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 said: ‘Sometime in the future we will look back and say, ‘How did we do without space?’

Since officially endorsing Trump in July, the billionaire has become the country’s second-largest financier, donating tens of millions of dollars to his campaign.

And on Monday, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office charged 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 signatories’ 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 appearance on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5.

It appears Musk believes Trump would maintain this track record if re-elected, which would allow him to make rapid progress toward the future he envisions for SpaceX and the commercial space industry at large.

“With Trump in power, Musk can expect a more favorable regulatory environment for his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX,” said Michael Breen, associate professor at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, Ireland. Newsweek.

“Like many Silicon Valley billionaires, Musk opposes any restrictions on what he considers his personal freedom,” he added.

At today’s FII Summit, a gathering of world leaders, investors, policymakers and innovators, Musk said he has taken on an “important role” in the 2024 presidential election – citing his steadfast support for Trump.

But even before the summit, Musk repeatedly stated that excessive regulation is hindering innovation and progress toward becoming a “multiplanetary species,” which is SpaceX’s driving goal.

‘Voting for Trump is voting for Mars! Unless we stop the slow strangulation of overregulation in America, we will never become a multiplanetary civilization,” he wrote on X.

Through SpaceX, Musk is trying 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 hurdles 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 innovation within SpaceX and other commercial space companies.

“Unless there are major government reforms, laws and regulations will get worse every year until every major effort, from high-speed rail between our cities to making life multiplanetary, is effectively illegal,” Musk previously said.

All of this indicates 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.