Roundup: What will happen to Elon Musk after the election?

A few weeks ago, Elon Musk joked with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he’d be arrested if Kamala Harris is elected US president in November. I thought it to be a ridiculous statement at the time; another example of his personal delusions that include believing she would also end democracy. But more and more I’m starting to believe — and hope — he might be right.

Musk’s public support of Trump has been escalating for months, paired with reporting showing how long he’s been supporting these right-wing causes. The guy has been financially backing Republican initiatives since 2022 when he gave $50 million to a non-profit linked to Stephen Miller, but more recently has funneled $75 million into his effort to get Trump elected.

That money has gone to a number of things: Musk’s PAC is handling Trump’s ground game in key states like Arizona and Nevada, but new reporting suggests a significant share of his reported door knocks may be fraudulent. 404 Media has also show how Musk is supporting the Future Coalition PAC to microtarget Muslim and Jewish voters with contradictory messages aimed at turning them against the Democratic party.

But the most controversial move has been Musk’s decision to tell voters he will personally pay them for taking actions that help get Trump elected — something that not only feels illegal, but is the kind of thing the political right has been falsely accusing people like George Soros of doing for years. Earlier this month, Musk said he’d pay voters in swing states to refer people they knew to sign his PAC’s petition so it could collect their personal information. He now says he’ll pay voters in Pennsylvania who sign the petition or refer someone to sign it $100 and that he’ll give away $1 million a day until election day to a random swing-state voter who has signed the petition.

It’s hard not to see Musk’s more recent actions as anything other than trying to buy votes for Donald Trump in the states that will decide the presidential race, and he should face consequences for that. If Trump wins, Musk will be rewarded with a government position, a favorable regulatory environment, and plenty of subsidies for his businesses.

But if the Democrats remain in power, it’s time to hold Elon Musk accountable not just for trying so brazenly to buy the election, but for all the rest of his rule-breaking actions in recent years.

This week in the roundup find some important pieces about a tech-funded race science network and a look back at 40 years of Neuromancer and what it meant for cyberpunk. Plus, plenty of labor updates and other tech news you might have missed.

I wrote a piece for the Toronto Star this week about why we shouldn’t heed the warnings about AI from Geoffrey Hinton. Over on Tech Won’t Save Us, I spoke to Julia Black about Curtis Yarvin, the man behind man of the extreme right ideas being adopted by tech billionaires.

Episode 2 of my series Data Vampires is also available now, where I speak to people about opposition to data centers in Ireland, Spain, and Chile. Two more episodes are coming before the end of the month.

Have a great week!

— Paris