Donald Trump is set to be the United States’ president from 2025 to 2029. Having secured 267 electoral votes at the time of writing - three short of the total needed to win the presidency - the New Yorker is poised to return to the White House for a second term, four years after an election defeat whose results he has never accepted. And a key figure in Trump’s probable win over Kamala Harris has been Elon Musk. The world’s richest man, according to the prestigious financial publication Forbes magazine, played a crucial role in furthering Trump’s bid to regain the Oval Office, both in terms of money and media exposure.

How has Musk aided Trump’s election bid?

In recent months, Musk has been one of Trump’s closest allies. In June, he publicly announced his support for the 78-year-old, before campaigning alongside him, appearing by his side at a rally in Pennsylvania, and organizing multiple $1 million giveaways to voters who promised to vote for Trump. Those cash handouts have come under the scrutiny of the electoral authorities, amid suspicions that they break election laws. Musk also placed his media platforms at Trump’s service - most notably the social media app X, formerly known as Twitter. The platform has been a springboard for pro-Trump rhetoric and conspiracy theories; Musk amplified the business magnate’s message, at the same time as he was fiercely critical of Harris and the Democrats.

It was no surprise, then, that Musk was included in the close circle that joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the latter’s luxurious mansion in Florida, on Election Night. A series of photos show the Tesla and SpaceX founder sitting close to Trump, chatting with him alongside Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Later in the evening, as the incoming election results began to indicate that Trump was on course for a return to the White House, Musk took to X to post a mocked-up image of himself holding a basin in the Oval Office, with the caption: “Let that sink in”. Created by repurposing footage of his entrance at Twitter headquarters after his 2022 takeover of the social-media platform, the photoshopped image repeats the play on words he used two years ago.

Musk subsequently posted, “The people of America gave Donald Trump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” before adding: “The future is going to be fantastic.” The 53-year-old also shared a post by another X user, ALX, who captioned a photo of Trump addressing his supporters with the Latin phrase: “Vox Populi, Vox Dei“ (”The voice of the people, the voice of God").

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What role could Elon Musk have in Trump administration?

Trump has already said that he plans to appoint Musk as a senior adviser if he clinches election victory over Harris. Indeed, he has even hinted that Musk could occupy an official role relating to regulatory bodies. Musk is eager to cut red tape and reduce the restrictions placed on major companies. “We’ve got a gigantic bureaucracy, we’ve got overregulation,” Musk told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson during an online show filmed at Mar-a-Lago recently. “We need to let the builders of America build.” A range of political analysts have warned that Trump risks creating a major conflict of interest if he places Musk in a position to significantly influence policy in a way that favors his own businesses.