Berliner Boersenzeitung - Elon Musk: rocket man takes aim at Washington

EUR -
AED 3.8756
AFN 72.200575
ALL 98.139539
AMD 411.532283
ANG 1.916419
AOA 962.319203
ARS 1053.188708
AUD 1.630218
AWG 1.899315
AZN 1.784231
BAM 1.955003
BBD 2.146925
BDT 127.068214
BGN 1.956891
BHD 0.397718
BIF 3140.020304
BMD 1.055175
BND 1.421121
BOB 7.348005
BRL 6.129194
BSD 1.063362
BTN 89.676253
BWP 14.428257
BYN 3.479882
BYR 20681.429409
BZD 2.143327
CAD 1.478495
CDF 3023.076626
CHF 0.936043
CLF 0.037472
CLP 1033.976525
CNY 7.638303
CNH 7.648689
COP 4726.12869
CRC 542.978712
CUC 1.055175
CUP 27.962137
CVE 110.22008
CZK 25.288011
DJF 189.351934
DKK 7.458214
DOP 64.043899
DZD 141.622416
EGP 52.009895
ERN 15.827625
ETB 129.779309
FJD 2.40258
FKP 0.83167
GBP 0.831235
GEL 2.880458
GGP 0.83167
GHS 17.173001
GIP 0.83167
GMD 74.917819
GNF 9164.265159
GTQ 8.216651
GYD 222.469334
HKD 8.212268
HNL 26.846059
HRK 7.526869
HTG 139.81302
HUF 408.163026
IDR 16774.7496
ILS 3.959224
IMP 0.83167
INR 89.068533
IQD 1392.932319
IRR 44414.948032
ISK 147.313122
JEP 0.83167
JMD 168.341393
JOD 0.748221
JPY 164.500191
KES 136.329796
KGS 90.952195
KHR 4308.244201
KMF 492.080753
KPW 949.658078
KRW 1481.418127
KWD 0.324772
KYD 0.886139
KZT 524.106404
LAK 23352.482837
LBP 95221.093219
LKR 310.793338
LRD 200.438313
LSL 19.102015
LTL 3.115657
LVL 0.638265
LYD 5.151876
MAD 10.572991
MDL 19.161191
MGA 4961.977776
MKD 61.584316
MMK 3427.167142
MNT 3585.4848
MOP 8.519528
MRU 42.330748
MUR 50.047248
MVR 16.302766
MWK 1843.848551
MXN 21.712439
MYR 4.735102
MZN 67.423993
NAD 19.102015
NGN 1777.041223
NIO 39.134051
NOK 11.764987
NPR 143.481165
NZD 1.799094
OMR 0.406253
PAB 1.063367
PEN 4.030158
PGK 4.274258
PHP 62.064863
PKR 295.443194
PLN 4.34422
PYG 8298.578641
QAR 3.87682
RON 4.97705
RSD 116.980897
RUB 103.919035
RWF 1459.505187
SAR 3.964662
SBD 8.846117
SCR 14.382386
SDG 634.688134
SEK 11.596378
SGD 1.419896
SHP 0.83167
SLE 24.073878
SLL 22126.461188
SOS 607.652355
SRD 37.226828
STD 21839.991486
SVC 9.304208
SYP 2651.158922
SZL 19.108032
THB 36.972803
TJS 11.329783
TMT 3.703664
TND 3.346836
TOP 2.471323
TRY 36.237853
TTD 7.226055
TWD 34.365466
TZS 2801.489873
UAH 43.929697
UGX 3902.409597
USD 1.055175
UYU 44.831729
UZS 13603.455994
VES 47.479192
VND 26796.168359
VUV 125.272516
WST 2.950778
XAF 655.689778
XAG 0.035082
XAU 0.000412
XCD 2.851663
XDR 0.801074
XOF 655.686672
XPF 119.331742
YER 263.580476
ZAR 19.275884
ZMK 9497.834156
ZMW 29.087146
ZWL 339.76591
  • CMSC

    0.0700

    24.61

    +0.28%

  • RBGPF

    59.2500

    59.25

    +100%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    24.73

    -0.08%

  • RELX

    -0.4700

    46.12

    -1.02%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    7.07

    -0.57%

  • VOD

    0.2800

    8.75

    +3.2%

  • NGG

    -0.7800

    62.12

    -1.26%

  • GSK

    -0.4100

    35.11

    -1.17%

  • SCS

    -0.3000

    13.37

    -2.24%

  • BCC

    1.4200

    142.55

    +1%

  • RIO

    -0.5800

    60.62

    -0.96%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.24

    +0.15%

  • AZN

    0.1000

    65.29

    +0.15%

  • BTI

    0.1800

    35.42

    +0.51%

  • BCE

    -0.4800

    27.21

    -1.76%

  • BP

    0.4100

    28.57

    +1.44%

Elon Musk: rocket man takes aim at Washington
Elon Musk: rocket man takes aim at Washington / Photo: Anna Moneymaker - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Elon Musk: rocket man takes aim at Washington

Billionaire Elon Musk took a wild gamble backing Donald Trump's White House candidacy, but the bet has paid off -- at least for now -- with the US president-elect handing him an outsized role to overhaul the government.

Text size:

Musk said before the election that a new "Department of Government Efficiency" would slash $2 trillion from the federal budget -- a big promise echoing his sky-high business ambitions that have made him the world's wealthiest person.

With few details released, questions as to how Musk will lead the agency, including how he will juggle his new role while managing SpaceX, Tesla and his other ventures, including X.

With Musk's businesses all having varying degrees of interactions with US and foreign governments, his new position also raises concerns about conflict of interest.

In his announcement, Trump said that Musk and another wealthy ally, Vivek Ramaswamy, would co-lead the new initiative and "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government."

Endorsing a Republican candidate and helping propel him to victory was a shift towards politics for Musk.

The 53-year-old South African-born entrepreneur rose to fame as the face of the nascent electric vehicle industry and has frequently expounded on the threats of climate change.

When Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords in 2017, Musk resigned from two presidential advisory councils in protest.

Years later, Musk has become Trump's most prominent celebrity endorser, leaning fully in to get him and his "Make America Great Again" agenda back in the White House.

Musk reportedly spent over $100 million to help Trump get elected, a massive sum, though a tiny fraction of his estimated $300 billion fortune.

He also used his influence on X, where he has more than 200 million followers, to push pro-Trump messages, as well as inflammatory disinformation about illegal immigration and voting.

However, it remains to be seen how two notoriously egocentric personalities like Musk and Trump will get along in the long term.

- Illegal immigration -

Born in Pretoria on June 28, 1971, to an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother, Musk left South Africa in his late teens to attend Queen's University in Ontario.

He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years and earned bachelor's degrees in physics and business.

After graduating from the Ivy League school, Musk abandoned plans to study at Stanford University in California.

He instead dropped out and started Zip2, a company that made online publishing software for the media industry.

During the 2024 campaign -- during which illegal immigration was once again Trump's key issue -- reports resurfaced that Musk had likely violated his visa when he left Stanford.

Musk banked his first millions before the age of 30 when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.

Musk's next company, X.com, eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought by internet auction giant eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

After leaving PayPal, Musk embarked on a series of ever more ambitious ventures.

He founded SpaceX in 2002 -- now serving as its chief executive officer and chief technology officer -- and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004.

After some early crashes and near-misses, SpaceX perfected the art of landing booster engines on solid ground and ocean platforms, rendering them reusable -- a major advancement in the field.

Musk has said he wants to make humans an "interplanetary species" by establishing a colony of people living on Mars.

To this end, SpaceX is developing a prototype rocket, Starship, which it envisages carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The spaceship, the world's largest, has already completed several tests, most recently a successful "catch" of a booster.

Musk, who holds US, Canadian and South African citizenship, has been married and divorced three times: once to the Canadian author Justine Wilson and twice to British actress Talulah Riley. He also dated the artist and singer Grimes. He has had 12 children, one of whom died in infancy.

(H.Schneide--BBZ)