Elon Musk has been buddy-buddy with President-elect Donald Trump lately, prompting speculation that he will be a major influence in the upcoming Trump administration.
In July, Musk publicly endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential election and even appeared at one of his campaign rallies in October. Musk was also spotted on Sunday playing golf with the president-elect at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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Musk’s support of Trump has so far had a major domino effect on Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, which saw its stock swell by roughly 39% four days after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Related: Elon Musk’s strange new rule for X employees could cause trouble
This helped Musk’s net worth to increase by roughly $70 billion, making his total net worth to be around $320 billion.
Now it appears that Musk may soon face another unexpected benefit from his strong support of the president-elect: Trump recently appointed him as co-lead of a new Department of Government Efficiency.
Late last year, Musk’s social media platform X (TWTR) faced a mass exodus from advertisers due to controversy over the antisemitic tweet the billionaire endorsed. Now, some advertisers may be planning to return to the platform in order to get on Musk’s good side, according to a new report from the Financial Times.
AJL Advisory CEO Lou Paskalis said in an interview with the outlet that advertisers will most likely aim to get in the “good graces of Elon” in order to gain “political leverage” for certain situations such as landing government contracts.
Another advertising exec in the report also claimed that advertising on X could now be viewed as “an official channel for White House communications.”
Elon Musk's troubled relationship with advertisers
The change in attitude comes after advertisers such as Disney, Walmart, NBCUniversal, Apple, IBM, Warner Bros., etc withdrew their spending on the platform last year, which reportedly caused X to face the threat of losing $75 million.
Related: Elon Musk’s X threatens laid off employees over a major mistake
Even though Musk apologized at a New York Times DealBook Summit in November for endorsing the antisemitic tweet, which stated that "Jewish communities" have been pushing "hatred against whites," he delivered his apology with a stern message to advertisers.
“If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f---yourself,” said Musk at the summit. “Go. F---. Yourself. Is that clear?”
X faces declines in revenue
Advertisers returning to X could be the company’s lifeline.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has been struggling financially ever since Musk acquired the platform for $44 billion in late 2022. Just a year after Musk purchased the app, the company’s revenue, which is mostly made through advertising, reportedly declined from $4.4 billion to $3.4 billion.
More on Elon Musk:
- Trump and Musk's union-busting joke wasn't funny to the UAW
- Tesla quietly made a controversial change to the Cybertruck
- Elon Musk's subtle EV pitch nudges Trump in the right direction
Also, according to a recent report from The New York Times, during the second-quarter of 2024, X allegedly earned only $114 million in revenue in the U.S., which is a 53% decline compared to the same time period last year.
The report also states that X is hoping to earn $190 million in U.S. revenue during the third quarter of this year, which it plans to earn from “advertising associated with the Olympics, football and political campaigns.”
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
