As he claimed the presidency in a stunning re-election, Donald Trump shouted out a key supporter: “A star is born—Elon.” Leading up to Election Day, the former president tapped multibillionaire Elon Musk for appearances across Pennsylvania and at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Tesla CEO gave at least $130 million to Trump’s campaign. In return, Trump floated the idea of appointing Musk, the world’s richest person, to a newly created government efficiency role.
For Musk, a longtime champion of renewable energy who once gave money to political candidates in both parties, the Trump alliance is part of a rightward shift (as has occurred with several other Silicon Valley elites). And Musk’s comments on X and at political rallies echo many of Trump’s key MAGA talking points.
But how closely aligned are these two political bedfellows when it comes to their views on policy?
Fortune zoomed in on some of the key policy issues facing the next administration to see where Musk and Trump see eye to eye—and where they part ways.
Immigration
Positions: Seemingly aligned
Trump: Trump proposes mass deportation; the end of birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented parents; deporting and revoking the visas of foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters; revoking humanitarian parole; and adding “ideological screening.” His only pro-immigration policy is to grant automatic green cards for noncitizen graduates of U.S. colleges and universities.
Musk: Musk, who was born in South Africa, frequently spreads anti-immigration content on X, including conspiracies about voter fraud. He has said, “As someone who’s an immigrant, I’m pro-immigrant, I just want to be sure that people who come here are going to be assets to society.” Musk has tweeted about deporting criminals, but does not appear to have explicitly expressed an opinion on Trump’s calls for mass deportations.
Clean energy
Positions: At odds
Musk: Musk owns Tesla, the first successful mass-market electric-car maker. He has called renewable energy cost-effective and efficient and once proposed taxing carbon emissions. In a livestreamed conversation with Trump, Musk said solar energy could one day source most of earth’s energy but warned against vilifying the oil and gas industries. Musk served as a corporate economic adviser to Trump in 2016 but left the advisory council a year later following Trump’s decision to remove the U.S. from the Paris Accords on climate.
Trump: For years, Trump called climate change a hoax. He largely opposes clean energy policies, seeking to scale back regulations on drilling for oil and gas and to once again remove the U.S. from the international Paris Agreement on climate change. He also opposes the Biden administration’s EV subsidies and vehicle efficiency rules.
Abortion
Positions: Somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk, who has fathered at least 11 children, is famously pro-procreation, believing that “a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces.” He told Pennsylvania voters at a Trump rally that abortion shouldn’t be permitted if after viability, claiming that “at this point it’s not abortion, it’s a murder.”
Trump: Trump’s position on abortion has shifted over the years. While campaigning in 2016, he pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who would walk back the constitutional right to abortion. And he often expressed support for a federal abortion ban leading up to 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since the SCOTUS ruling, he has shied away from taking a clear stance on the issue of a federal ban in light of backlash, but has supported states passing restrictive measures and voted to keep Florida’s six-week abortion ban.
Guns
Positions: Aligned
Trump: Trump is a friend of the National Rifle Association and has rallied voters by claiming that Harris wants to confiscate firearms. While in office, he rolled back Obama administration regulations that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.
Musk: Musk’s view is that “as soon as the government can disarm the people, they can do anything they want.” His America PAC petition prompts voters to pledge support for Second Amendment rights.
Tariffs
Positions: Somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk has gone back and forth on tariffs. In May, he criticized U.S. tariffs on Chinese EVs. More recently, at a Trump rally, he said Tesla needs tariffs to compete with Chinese EV makers.
Trump: Trump has said, “The most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’” and he made frequent use of them during his presidency. In his current campaign for the White House, Trump has floated raising tariffs on Chinese imports including automobiles to 60%. He has also promised to end the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity trade agreement and impose universal tariffs on most foreign imports.
Taxes
Positions: Seemingly aligned
Trump: Trump signed legislation that slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% during his presidency, and he has proposed reducing it further should he get a second term. Among the other tax-related ideas he has proposed: eliminating the federal income tax for individuals; eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay; and repealing green energy tax credits.
Musk: While Musk hasn’t weighed in on specific taxes, he recently vowed to keep the government “off your back and out of your pocketbook” in a Trump rally speech in which he described all government spending as “taxation.” He has offered to advise a potential Trump administration “to ensure our government works more efficiently and uses America’s taxpayer dollars effectively.” He has suggested cutting a third of the government’s $6.75 trillion annual budget without specifying where cuts would come from.
Government subsidies
Positions: Somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk once believed in universal basic income. Now, as the world’s wealthiest person, he says the government should cut spending on subsidies. He recently claimed EV subsidies make up only a small part of Tesla’s revenue, and that SpaceX doesn’t collect any government subsidies, though Tesla continues to lobby for government benefits.
Trump: Trump tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act while in office and proposed budget cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, and other social safety net programs. On the campaign trail, he has made promises to protect Social Security and Medicare. He’s also said he would only reinstate the child tax credit for families with an income, and that he would axe Inflation Reduction Act spending.
Onshoring manufacturing
Positions: Somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk has paused plans for a Mexico gigafactory until after the election but broke ground on a battery factory in Shanghai earlier this year. Tesla already has an automobile manufacturing facility in China, which has upstaged its Fremont, Calif., plant as the company’s most valuable and productive site.
Trump: Trump says steep tariffs and corporate tax breaks will curb offshoring of manufacturing jobs. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. added 414,000 manufacturing jobs before the pandemic, according to reports—but by the end of his term he had presided over a net loss of nearly 200,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.
LGBTQ+ rights
Positions: Seemingly aligned
Musk: This is a frequent topic of conversation on X for Musk. He called a California law preventing educators from notifying parents about students’ gender identity “the final straw” that prompted him to relocate X and SpaceX headquarters to Texas, which bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Trump: Trump has promised to roll back policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including a day one reversal of protections under Title IX, the civil rights law protecting against gendered discrimination in education. He’s also said he would restrict access to gender-affirming care by, for example, blocking doctors who provide transition care from Medicare and Medicaid.
Foreign policy
Positions: Somewhat aligned
Musk: Musk has come under fire over reports that he’s been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. He made his Starlink internet satellites available to Ukraine early in its war with Russia, but reportedly refused to let Ukraine use the service in a surprise attack on Russian ships in 2022. There have been reports that Russian troops now have access to Starlink satellites, though Musk has refuted the reports. Starlink is also providing internet access in Gaza and Yemen, though the company once threatened to shut off services in Sudan.
Trump: Trump has long been under scrutiny for his close ties to Putin. While insisting that the war in Ukraine should end quickly, he has criticized the extent of U.S. aid to Ukraine and has touted “America First” foreign policies. In the Middle East, Trump vows alliance with Israel and Saudi Arabia. While president, Trump started a trade war with China and took a confrontational approach toward general relations with Beijing.
Free speech
Positions: Aligned
Musk: Musk considers himself a “free speech absolutist.” His America PAC petition also urges voters to pledge support for unfettered speech. Censorship was among Musk’s purported reasons for buying X for $44 billion. Since he took over X, Musk has come under fire for allowing hate speech to flourish on the platform.
Trump: Trump calls himself pro–free speech but has said he wants to make it illegal to burn the American flag and that the news media should lose broadcast licenses and pay him damages for unfavorable coverage. Like Musk, Trump runs a social media platform, Truth Social, under the idea of open discourse. But users who posted about the congressional hearings concerning the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were reportedly censored.
A version of this article originally published October 31.
