There is a simple answer to the question in the headline on Arwa Mahdawi’s article (Elon Musk is trying to buy the US election for Donald Trump. What does he want in return?, 22 October). Through his various companies, Elon Musk has hundreds of contracts with the federal government – from Nasa space flights to government cars.
According to the New York Times, two of his companies “account for at least $15.4bn in government contracts over the past decade”, and there have been at least 20 recent investigations or reviews into Musk’s companies by federal regulators.
The “efficiency tsar” role that Musk and Donald Trump have mooted for him will put oversight of those contracts into his hands. Outsourcing contract governance to a contractor would give them the ability to influence contract awards, tenders, processes, appointments, terms and conditions, timelines, and even the budgets authorised for them by Congress.
A less ethical appointment is hard to imagine. There are many conflicts of interest. It’s the Midas touch institutionalised.
Shim Wilson
Cape Town, South Africa
• Donald Trump is again showing his declining mental acuity when complaining about the possibility of British interference in American presidential elections (Trump files extraordinary complaint claiming election meddling by UK Labour party, 22 October).
During Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns his most ardent British sycophant, Nigel Farage, gave numerous speeches on the campaign trail. Earlier this year Farage said that he intended to work on Trump’s 2024 election campaign rather than run for election himself. That promise turned out to be false, and he has made more recent political excursions to the US.
Trump conveniently finds British interference in presidential elections acceptable when it benefits him.
Mike McNally
Carbondale, Illinois, US
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