Elon Musk’s dozens of meetings with presidents, prime ministers and political candidates show his growing political influence

New York
CNN
 — 

Over the previous three years, Elon Musk has met dozens of instances with presidents, prime ministers, lawmakers, authorities officers and political candidates from all over the world.

Some of these meetings have been extremely publicized, like his go to to Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following criticism over an antisemitic publish Musk boosted on X. Different meetings, akin to a latest dialog with Argentine President Javier Milei, the world solely glimpses by way of the billionaire’s social media posts.

Recognized subjects of dialog ranged from enterprise alternatives for Musk’s corporations to elections and coverage points akin to commerce, power, training and inhabitants administration, in keeping with a CNN evaluation of Musk’s meetings, calls and conversations with political figures all over the world since August 2021. Though some of his relationships with these leaders return even additional, in that point, Musk has gone from being one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen to an more and more highly effective participant in world affairs.

Taken collectively, the meetings show how Musk has been courted not just for his corporations and deep pocketbook but additionally for his skill to impression the course of wars by way of his Starlink satellite service; his opinion on artificial intelligence, the following main wave of expertise improvement; and his position in swaying public opinion by way of his platform, X.

On Friday, the Wall Road Journal reported that Musk has been in common contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and different Russian authorities officers, together with about Starlink, since late 2022. CNN has not independently confirmed the conversations, so they aren’t included in our evaluation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised CNN the report was “completely false.” He stated Musk and Putin have solely ever spoken as soon as, including that the dialog was over the telephone and befell earlier than 2022. Musk’s lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark.

For Musk, conversations with world leaders are a virtuous cycle: The six distinguished corporations he owns or runs give him an in with these figures, whose help usually fuels their development. In flip, these leaders’ curiosity in attracting Musk’s enterprise gives a chance for him to advise on some of his different pet pursuits, akin to world delivery charges and immigration.

On the identical time, the South Africa-born billionaire has turn into a political energy participant in his adopted dwelling, the US. He held livestream marketing campaign occasions on X for presidential hopefuls Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who each later dropped out of the race, in addition to former President Donald Trump. Musk has since thrown his weight — and tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} — behind Trump, attending and internet hosting rallies on his behalf and criticizing (and, in some circumstances, spreading false details about) his competitor, Vice President Kamala Harris, on X.

“He’s making an attempt to be a world influencer, and I assume he’s determined he must do greater than use X,” stated James Lewis, director of the strategic applied sciences program on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research.

After all, it’s common for company leaders to generally meet with authorities officers, and Musk will not be the one huge enterprise title to publicly weigh in on the upcoming US presidential election.

However the extent of Musk’s public political involvement is uncommon for the chief govt of a public firm like Tesla — in addition to the proprietor of a number of highly effective personal corporations, govt management consultants advised CNN.

“What’s totally different about it’s that there’s a political side, and most CEOs steer clear of politics,” Lewis stated. “They’re going to the pinnacle of one other state, mainly, to make the business circumstances higher for his or her product, perhaps to foyer on a sure level, however they don’t often do politics,” he stated, including that with Musk, “there’s a political tone to the whole lot he does.”

At the very least some of Musk’s political relationships seem to have benefited his corporations. In Might 2022, Musk met with the then-President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, to mark the launch of Starlink within the nation, a significant new marketplace for the satellite tv for pc enterprise. In February 2023, he held calls with then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador a few new Tesla manufacturing plant within the state of Nuevo Leon, for which the corporate later acquired $153 million price of incentives from the state. In Might 2023, he held meetings with Chinese language authorities officers shortly after Tesla introduced plans for a new battery plant in Shanghai; Musk made a surprise return to China this April for a go to with Premier Li Qiang, weeks earlier than the corporate broke floor on the power.

Much more world leaders, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have met with Musk to ask Tesla to put money into their nations.

CNN’s evaluation contains solely meetings for which no less than some data is publicly accessible. It’s doable the billionaire has calls or meetings with leaders that he doesn’t publish about.

“One may say he doesn’t must pay lobbyists, as a result of he’s his personal lobbyist, globally,” stated William Klepper, a professor of administration at Columbia Enterprise Faculty who focuses on govt management. However, he added, “once you’ve bought different folks’s cash at stake, you need to reasonable your actions … once you get into these extremes, you’ll be able to impression what you are promoting.”

Musk has not hesitated to deal in extremes. He’s warned of the downfall of America if Democrats are elected, pushed false conspiracy theories on subjects akin to mail-in voting and warned in public occasions of a “woke thoughts virus” that threatens society’s developments.

Individually, Musk has additionally taken warmth for enhancing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, racist false claims about immigration and the harmful ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy, in addition to posting a Holocaust joke on X.

Lately, Musk’s political activism has begun to have a tangible impression on his corporations: Manufacturers pulled their ads from X, tanking its value. And SpaceX earlier this month sued a California regulator after it allegedly denied a bid to permit extra rocket launches over the billionaire’s controversial feedback, claiming it had violated Musk’s freedom of speech. (The company didn’t touch upon the go well with.)

CNN’s evaluation additionally means that Musk has, specifically, labored to develop influence amongst a set of right-leaning world leaders, together with Modi, Bolsonaro, Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“He’s most likely extra comfy with them … these are individuals who wish to meet with him, and not everybody needs to satisfy with Elon Musk,” Lewis stated. “It’s birds of a feather. He likes visiting people who find themselves going to be happy to be receiving Elon Musk.”

Throughout a convention for Italy’s far-right Brothers of Italy occasion final yr, Musk railed towards “unlawful immigration” and the “woke thoughts virus” that he stated was gripping the US. Musk referred to as it “evil” and warned of it transferring to Italy.

India’s Modi, who was not too long ago reelected for a uncommon third consecutive time period, used his plans for electrical automobile manufacturing development — together with conversations with Musk a few potential Tesla manufacturing facility — as a campaign talking point, though a gathering in India between the 2 males earlier this yr the place Musk was anticipated to announce the power was rescheduled.

Musk has additionally met with Milei a number of instances in his first yr main Argentina, throughout which era the president has faced protests over an enormous spike in poverty charges in consequence of austerity measures. “I like to recommend investing in Argentina,” Musk stated in an X post following a Might assembly between the pair. In one other post final month, Musk stated, “Milei is bringing prosperity to Argentina.” (Argentina is dwelling to huge stores of lithium, an integral part in batteries like those utilized in Tesla’s vehicles.)

Now, as he campaigns for Trump, Musk could also be setting himself up for his most distinguished political position but: a place in a doable future Trump White Home. Musk and Trump have publicly mentioned having the billionaire lead a brand new authorities effectivity fee — which Musk has jokingly known as the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, the title of Musk’s favourite meme and cryptocurrency — if the previous president is reelected.

Methodology: CNN’s evaluation is predicated on data compiled from information reviews, X posts and press releases. It’s doable different meetings exist, or different subjects have been mentioned past what’s publicly accessible. The place titles are as of the time of the assembly.