Topic: Is Musk buying votes? (Read 351 times)

They will have a bigger impact on American made cars, since they are full of materials and components that imported from other countries that we have agreements with.   Plus, those countries will respond with Tariffs of their own which car makers will have to offset by raising prices.

In the end, replacing income tax with tariffs will put more money in peoples pocket, especially the people in the highest tax bracket, and make pretty much everything more expensive.  Americans will have more money, especially the wealthy, but it will be worth less....I think there's a word for that...

Actually it makes more sense and sounds like pretty much a political authoritarian strategy if you explain his tariff plan in that way, instead of being a macroeconomical way to try to push the United States upwards... Perhaps that is why technological giants and CEOS which production heavily depend on imported good have remained silent during this presidential campaign, specially since Trump started to talk about Tariffs. I have read the CEO of Apple has even tried not to comment on Trump rethoric for the sake of the future of Apple and even Microsoft is walking on thin ice.

Though, of there is some certainty on his tariff policy, it would be an increase on the prices for anyone in America who tries to import and drive electrical vehicles made in China, Joe Biden has already set an stunning 200% percent tariff on those EVs, which is good for Tesla and Elon Musk, if Trump wins those tariffs will get up to 500% or more and the stock value of Tesla will continue to increase because of that.

Generally, public service has always been known for its wasteful spending in the course of service delivery to the populace and if Elon believes he has ideas on how those wastes in governance can be cut then IMO I am foreseeing that in the end some group of persons might be denied a few services they enjoy from the benevolence of the government.  It's just my speculation anyway and I may not be correct.


Elon Musk is very much knowledgeable and a smart guy who I think may have gone ahead to scramble for possible ways he could be caught up in the net within the armhole of the US law for vote buying  before pulling up such string. But whether or not there are evidence to hold him for vote buying the reality is that the initiative definitely has been able to influence voters choice significantly.

No! No! Don't buy the votes. Sell the votes to Cabala.     

If we look at it straight, there is nothing wrong in saying Elon is buying votes but I think before using this strategy, he also consulted and was advised very carefully by lawyers first. So we need to rely on US law to be able to say exactly whether he is buying votes or not because US law also prohibits this.

And in the latest news, Pennsylvania judge has decided not to intervene in Musk's voter rewards program and said he will wait for a federal court ruling. This shows that they could not find any evidence or loopholes to prove that Elon bought votes. It is safe to say that they failed in their efforts to stop him and gave the reason that they will take the case to federal court.


https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/judge-declines-to-block-elon-musk-1-million-voter-giveaway-as-billionaire-seeks-to-move-case/articleshow/114831110.cms?from=mdr

Elon Musk eyes radical overhaul of US gov’t as ‘Secretary of Cost-Cutting: Tesla and SpaceX CEO stands to gain a cabinet position if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election.

There are reports that Elon Musk will be part of the cabinet of Donald Trump working as a cost cutter. He has always talked about waste in governance and even said he would cut as much as $2 trillion from the budget. But he has not explained how he intends to achieve it. His companies have some lucrative contracts worth billions of dollars with the government. How will he avoid potentially huge conflicts of interest? My best bet is that he be given more lucrative deals and tax cuts. I am just wondering how the richest man in the world will be working under the most powerful president, there will surely be a conflict of interest.

The federal government signed over $15 billion worth of contracts with Musks companies this year, mostly spacex.

If he supported Harris, and Trump won, Trump would rip them up  and humiliate him.  No more richest man in the world.

If he supported Harris and Harris won he would be in the same place he is now.

If he supported Trump and Trump won, he gets control of his own federal agency, doesn't have to worry about following rules and regulations anymore, gets all the power that comes with everyone knowing Trump owes him some favors,  and he saves tons of money in taxes.

If he supported Trump and Harris won, he'd be in the same position he is now.


Tarriffs will be for people that criticize Trump, pose a threat to Trump, or people he just doesn't like.  Great way to get all the billionaires to bend the knee.

Elon Musk is a businessman and for him to carry on such initiative in support of one candidate (which we all know who that is)  in this USA election then it's safe to say he's got a cut or a stake for his empire should his preferred candidate emerge winner alas.

Surely it's no out of place to call that a vote buying mechanism, because ultimately, the initiative has every tendency to influence voters choice.  Like who doesn't want Elon's $1M   Especially in this economic weather.

If Musk isn't buying votes, he should be getting them any way he can.

The Federal Reserve Bank has been screwing us all ever since its inception, over 100 years ago. How do we know? Inflation.


END THE FED: Musk Supports Abolishing Federal Reserve

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https://www.infowars.com/posts/boom-musk-supports-ending-federal-reserve
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has floated the notion of abolishing the Federal Reserve System that issues US currency, a long-sought goal of freedom-minded, fiscally conservative Americans.

The Tesla owner shared his sentiments on X in response to libertarian stalwart Ron Paul, who commented on a video of Musk outlining plans to eliminate $2 trillion from the federal debt as Donald Trump's prospective head of a government efficiency bureau during his weekend appearance at Madison Square Garden.

"Elon cutting $2 Trillion from budget? Great idea! Start with some of the BIGGEST welfare recipients: Military-industrial complex, Pharmaceutical-industrial complex," the former Texas congressman suggested on Monday, adding, "Oh…and End the Fed!"

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Ron Paul
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Oct 28, 2024
@RonPaul
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Elon cutting $2 Trillion from budget? Great idea!

Start with some of the BIGGEST welfare recipients:

- Military-industrial complex
- Pharmaceutical-industrial complex

Oh...and End the Fed!

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Elon Musk
@elonmusk
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Follow
Needs to be done

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Musk's response to Paul sent shockwaves throughout social media, with many excited the country might finally break free from the bankers' shackles of perpetual debt, as the private institution continually collects interest on US currency it prints into existence.

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eddmoo
@realeddmoo
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The Ron Paul/Elon Musk crossover was NOT on my bingo card for 2024, but damnit, I’m all in!

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Renee Know Insanity
@RKnowinsanity
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Elon & Ron Paul working together?
Be still my heart!!!

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₭₳₲ ĐⱤØ₲Ø🇺🇸
@KAGdrogo
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Follow
END THE FED!!! 🇺🇸🦅
...

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/31/elon-musk-court-hearing-voter-lottery

District Attorney of Philadelphia Larry Krasner has already filed a suit to challenge the legality of Elon Musk's reward to registered voters who sign the PAC petition. There have been discussions and arguments by Election law experts concerning the legality of this reward. But Elon failed to show up in court and requested for the case to be moved from Pennsylvania state court to federal court. Maybe the judgement of the court will determine if it is vote buying or not.    

Money is a trick. And the trick of money is a lie. Money only works if people believe in it. The more people who believe in money, the stronger money becomes for those who have it.

America wasn't originally designed to be that way. Originally America was designed so that personal rewards were the result of personal labor.

Government was poorly set up. Government didn't protect this for people. But it wasn't supposed to. Government protection is a form of slavery. People are supposed to be free.

For people to be free, they need a guide that is better than government. This guide was and is the Bible. Moses said, Deuteronomy chapter 4:
The best laws and freedom are there. Follow these laws, and the God Who set them up through Moses. There will be success for those who follow these laws and God. The most important of these laws are found in Exodus chapter 20... although there is greatness in the first 5 books of the Bible.

This is a truly extraordinary initiative where the American people will choose their preferred candidate through their vetting and they also own a huge amount of money. I believe that many people will be tempted to choose Trump and have a chance to get money.

To be fair, the political left in the United States are pretty much in for the adoption of electrical vehicles, and innovation within that field, so I don't see why they would turn against him as a business person when his business completely allign with the vision of the future the democrat party has for the country, to lower the levels of contamination in the country and fight climate change overall.
Also, one needs to see those big 1 million checks from the opting of a person who may not be explicitly in for voting for Donald Trump in a few days. Let us imagine some independent voter wants to participate in that give away for the chance of getting money, he signs the stuff after getting registered and applies for the lottery, by pure chance he gets selected and gets to meet Donald Trump and Elon Musk personally giving him one million dollars, there is a pretty high chance that independent voter turns into a Trump voter, only by the sympathy created in such a life changing experience. Even if the vote is secret, that person would feel the need to "give something back" for the money he received.

Even people in the audience who did not win the money could still vote for Trump out of the sympathy of such contest/lottery.

Musk believes in the American Dream. It has to do with building personal and private wealth in the only country left where you can do it honestly. It's also called FREEDOM.

Probably several reasons. One could be that Musk currently lives in a bubble of his own creation, thinking that everyone will vote for trump as his followers are voting for him.

Also trump has ton of legal bills to cover, and if Musk gave him private loans, he could use that as a leverage if trump gets to be president, and having a president in your pocket could be beneficial for a richest man in the planet.

There might be darker reasons, which can i only speculate without any evidence, but Musk have been in contact with Putin, and that makes me think Putin might have something bad on Musk that he is holding over his head. That would explain his radical change on views in last years.

Like the fact that diddy is one of Twitter's investors. And elon has stated that they are good friends and text a lot in his book. So it isn't far fetched that someone would have some incriminating evidence, and Elon's posts about diddy and democrats seem like projection in that light.

But about the issue of buying votes, DOJ as warned elon now: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/elon-musk-million-dollar-lottery-justice-department-rcna177009

Quite obvious. If the other side wins, it's going to be a living hell for him and all others who advocate for free speech, among other things. Trump is the better devil who could also

Nothing wierd if you are a businessman. Both are businessmen 

He did promise him a big position, but I doubt if it's in exchange for the current campaign he's running because it's not specifically targeting the trump supporter.

Elon Musk, is a smart business man and he'll exploit the loopholes in the US electoral laws to rally votes for his preferred candidate and from all indications it's Donald Trump. He didn't need to tell the people who to vote for because they already knows who he's supporting, so it's left for them to use their discretions and do the needful, ofcourse they can choose not to. This is a normal thing during election time, money bags will want to directly and indirectly rally support for their preferred candidate to protect their business interests. Anyway the American people knows what to, it's left for them to use their votes wisely, not because somebody is enticing them with money.

I wouldn't say outrightly that is vote buying, but buying of votes is always done during the election proper proper, however i believe this is some sort of inducement to woo voters towards Donald Trump side.
Elon musk hasn't hidden his support for Donald Trump, and he has before promised to roll out millions of dollars for the Donald Trump presidential campaign, so for him to be given out this cheques could be seen as him fulfilling what he has already said before now.
This is politics, you would have to deploy any tactics you know could be favourable you for you to help and win the election, and Elon musk is one of those on the front burner that really want to make sure Trump wins.

By the way, I wonder why Elon Musk has gotten some much into this presidential election so suddenly and so heavily supporting Trump for his second term. Somehow and in some way Elon must be planning to profit off a second term for Trump, which still seems weird to me considering Trump himself has mocked electric vehicles while comparing them with gas vehicles, so this is kind of wacky.
Do you believe there is a possibility Trump promised some governmental position within his administration in exchange of his big endorsement and the big money campaign he is doing for those who register? This probably have something to do with the I coming battle for the EV supremacy between EV companies headquartered in China and western companies like Tesla, which are in disadvantage by the way...

I have got the feeling tariffs for Electrical vehicles made in China are going to be up to 300% up in the case Trump wins and Elon is part of his administration.

There’s nothing anyone will ever tell me that will make me believe that a business owner backing a certain aspirant isn’t doing it because of what he or she stands to benefit. Even though everything turns out well and the leaders becomes a better one. Still doesn’t mean they backing him or her won’t stand the chance to benefit from their governance. That’s another strategy of making more money and being recognized globally.

Doesn't appear like he's buying the voters, though. If he was, then the "winners" would specifically be trump supporters, which is not the case. Also, I don't think he would be so foolish to do such a thing given that he is now one of the targets and all eyes are on him

Far better than how the other side is trying to use an already captured main stream media to stir things up

Buying votes for what? He candidate or something?

Well it’s clear that Facebook were interfering with the 2020 election, Zuckerberg admitted it. Google have also censored certain things to help the Democrats so I don’t really care what Elon does if it helps Trump. The system is bent so it’s time to fight dirty. If Elon can buy votes then whatever, let’s go Trump.

He's got enough of that If anything, he needs Trump to gain more power and influence.
Musk is willing to lose money now to make a change, which is why he bought Twitter and almost run it to the ground. He wanted to make a point.

Now, is he buying votes? What about Ripple that gave money to Kamala's PAC and announced it? It's like telling your investors that you're a fighting Democrat, so XRP army should help and also help however they can. Follow the leader.


Just look at Russia.
What happens there?
They organize transport for their voters and move them from one polling station to another. They pay people to throw in more than one ballot at the time.
One time when they counted votes the total was over 100% and it was aired on national TV.

As many as half of all the votes reported for Vladimir Putin in Russia’s presidential election last week were fraudulent, according to Russian independent media reports using a statistical method devised by analyst Sergey Shpilkin to estimate the extent of voter manipulation.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240320-shpilkin-method-statistical-analysis-gauges-voter-fraud-in-putin-landslide

What he should've done instead is said: "If and only if Trump wins Pennsylvania, I'll enter every registered voter in Pennsylvania into a 'Thank You PA!' lottery, where 30 people will each win $1 million." Alternatively, he could send $10 to every registered voter if Trump wins. Either one of those options creates an even stronger incentive for people to do whatever they can to get Trump to win, compared to what Musk is actually doing, but because it's disconnected from any particular person's action (ie. a person can get the reward even if they've never heard of it), I feel like it'd be on stronger legal ground.

I wonder what would happen if openly buying votes was completely legal. As somebody who doesn't idolize democracy, I'm not horrified by the idea, though I'm also not sure that it would be a net positive. If people buy votes purely for ideological reasons, and not as part of a plan to exploit their influence on government for profit, then they probably know more than the average voter and have more to lose, so that might actually be good. But it'd be really bad if you had a situation like: Candidate John Doe promises to make AT&T a monopoly again, so AT&T pays voters to vote for John Doe, and then AT&T makes back its vote-purchases via its resulting monopolistic rent-seeking. That'd be amplifying a problem which already exists in big government, where companies often have the ability and incentive to spend $1 million on lobbying for a policy which allows them to steal $0.01 from 300 million citizens, netting the company a profit, but not costing any individual citizen enough for them to care about it.

He's not buying your vote but buying your conscience so you get to vote for Trump even without being compelled to do so. He doesn't need to speak a word to those signing the petition. That Trump stood on the podium with him the day he gave out the first cash award speaks volumes to what he hopes to gain through this campaign strategy that might look like vote buying.

What medium do politicians apply in buying the conscious of the electorates? It's either they sweet talk them into believing that they are coming into office because of the interest of the people or they try to look for means of supporting the electorates moment that's close to the election to leave an impression on them. Legally speaking, you don't have a case against what he's doing because he's only trying to get people involved in the voting process and in the process reduce voters' apathy. It's left for the citizen to allow such a gesture affect who they eventually vote or not. But the fact remains that the likelihood of those that ends of signing the petition becoming trump supporters is very high.

Regardless of whether you like Elon Musk or not, you should sign up for this. Let us make the best out of any opportunity. If someone is willing to give this much money, let’s go and take it. Easy. 
Musk is associated with Trump so it makes sense if these voters would be encouraged to vote for Trump. It does seem like he is encouraging registering to vote more than encouraging one specific candidate but like you said that is how we see it in public. Without cameras, we don’t know what they are telling them.

Even if it’s vote buying, Musk is not directly involved in Trump’s team and I don’t think the money Musk is giving away came from Trump so there’s nothing that could be linked back to Trump.

But Like I said, just take this opportunity and if you don’t want to vote for Trump then don’t. No one will know anyway.

Really in the country where I come from, this is clear vote buying, because constitutionally, no one should pay anyone to vote for a particular candidate be it in direct vote buying or through proxy, and Musk is doing the obvious, and since he has alot of money to throw away, he is using it including his popularity to buy this votes for his friend and business partner Donald Trump, and for sure it clearly a pointer to how weak democracy have become globally, because in the history of American, this is the first time, a popular figure is coming our to pay people money to vote for his candidates and Indeed, Trump is going to be enjoying alot of benefit's that will trigger up his votes against his opponent in the coming general election.
Musk is a smart business Man, and he knows the importance and privileges that his company will enjoy is Trump tickets sail through and with all this support, any ways election globally is far from being free and fair, to highest bidder take the victory, just get a bag load of cash and just buy your way through that is what democracy have been reduced to in contemporary politics.

This is the first thing I think Musk has done that is seemingly going over the line. I don’t think he’s buying votes, as voting isn’t a condition of winning his million dollar prize. He’s paying you to register to vote and sign a petition. Still, the optics of it are bad and misinformed people will make it a talking point that Musk is trying to buy the election.

Go Musk Go!

About time somebody offset the Communistic operations of the Dem Deep State a little. Maybe I should join. I could use an extra $mil.

The is the US Code on electoral law that covers vote buying:
Elon Musk was smart to exploit the loopholes in the US electoral laws. He didn't pay anybody to vote for a particular candidate but to sign a petition so it is legal. This matter will be difficult to prove in court except there is an amendment in the electoral laws.

In my point of view, it is clear vote buying. Why will the petition favour Trump's policy (right to bear arms)? Why is the target the seven swing states? Why is this petition coming when election is close. Why is it targeting only registered voters? Can't this petition be signed without financial inducement?

I quite agree with you and if you look at it, the money he's giving isn't just to anyone that comes in, it is done randomly, like a lottery style jumbo and so far it's just one person that has won it as is shown in the Op.
 Elon is a business man that doesn't do things just on a whim but strategically placed so he can benefit out of it and to those who are claiming it's illegal and he should be called to order, if the matter is looked into, you'd discover that he's not paying the registered voters that amount because that would be illegal, rather he's paying those who are registered to vote and are willing to sign the petition.
 People who also refer other voters who sign are promised $47 each and for me this looks desperate on his path but to him he feels he just being supportive and cited that others like Mark Zuckerberg have done something like this in the past.

He can bribe and falsify votes, but the future will show.

Musk is not buying a vote by supporting his candidate with campaign, because he know that someone cannot use money to change people choice which is the reason is using this opportunity to encourage people to vote for the right person. He is trying to support his friend to make sure he win this upcoming election because he know what his friend Trump can do, if he win the election to become the president of the country, he will make sure he fulfill his promises to make cryptocurrencies users and other supporters feel comfortable in their plans. I believe you know that Musk is a business man that is well know in the decentralized investment and other businesses, any contribution he make now to support his candidate in this election, he will not regret because he will surely be favour by the president when he resume office, and you cannot call such support a vote buying because there is no constitution that is against such support in the election.

I have indeed seen people in the political left of the spectrum in the United States to call these actions by Musk to be election interference, though, one needs to point out how the document and the whole process does not explicitly imply the person needs to vote for Donald Trump for them to become elegible for the cash prize of one million dollars, so it could be defended in court as a process which rathers encourage voter registration than seeking people to sell their vote for Trump, the former is completely legal, while the latter is not.
There is a slight approximation to what Taylor S has been doing in this presidential campaign, by encoraging her fans to register and vote, though she never offered anything in cash for those who did it.  It is a tricky situation.

With his money, this is clearly present. He needs a Trump victory for wealth.

Most likely, it's not for nothing that he supports Trump.

So the premise is this, you register to vote, you sign a petition saying you support the constitution, and suddenly you're placed on a list with eligibility to get a prize of USD 1Mln.

Surely the vote is going to be secret, but your incentive to follow the above actions is clear.
As you live in a state important for the presidential election, a lot of attention is placed on your actions. So this petition put forward a clear pro-republican message. In no uncertain terms you'll know it's in support for Trump, although you'll be receiving no clear instructions on who to vote for, at least in public, you'll know what's going on.

Let's now be impartial, doesn't that seems like buying votes to you?