Elon Musk’s much-ballyhooed, glitch-riddled interview earlier this month with Donald Trump was simply the newest episode within the tech mogul’s enduring crush on the previous president. Musk, no stranger to controversy, has been unabashed in his backing of Trump within the 2024 presidential election — and he was instrumental in returning Trump to X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter.
Each election cycle, celebrities attempt to put their thumb on the dimensions in favor of their candidate. And whereas a brand new research reveals that celebrities like Megan Thee Stallion or Child Rock can affect an election by drumming up voter enthusiasm, it’s the extraordinarily rich and highly effective CEOs — like Musk — who can wield outsize energy in political campaigns.
Like all Americans, Musk and different CEOs have the best to get entangled in American politics, from funding tremendous PACs to working behind the scenes to drum up the vote to giving them an viewers on their platforms. However that engagement can come at a value.
Historical past offers a notice of warning: TIME founder Henry Luce absolutely invested himself in selling the marketing campaign of Basic Dwight Eisenhower. His full-throated help of Eisenhower, uncommon for a media conglomerate, introduced short-term advantages — giving him entry to Eisenhower within the White Home. However finally, his enthusiastic embrace of Eisenhower had a detrimental influence on his journal’s journalistic popularity.
Luce created TIME in 1923 as a result of he noticed that America lacked a nationwide information platform. As America’s first nationwide newsmagazine, TIME was one thing solely new in American journalism and it caught on, rapidly gaining a whole lot of 1000’s of subscribers on its option to finally tens of tens of millions. It additionally had an actual curiosity within the presidency. TIME was groundbreaking in its reporting of the every day actions of the president, and even created a well-liked part known as “The President’s Week.”
Given his curiosity within the presidency, Luce needed good relations with the president, one thing that eluded him all through the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He and Roosevelt disliked one another — intensely — and Luce labored repeatedly to defeat him, supporting unsuccessful candidates like Alf Landon in opposition to Roosevelt in 1936. He failed every time, however that simply made him extra dedicated. Even after Roosevelt died, Luce continued to nurse his grudge, declaring, “It’s my responsibility to go on hating him.” The connection with Roosevelt’s alternative Harry Truman was not significantly better.
In 1952, Luce noticed a chance to finish 20 years of Democratic dominance of the White Home. Luce believed one-party supremacy was not solely dangerous for himself personally (as a result of Roosevelt was his enemy), however for the nation as properly. So in 1952, Luce went all in for Eisenhower, utilizing his place as media magnate to help Ike in quite a lot of methods.
Even earlier than Eisenhower was an official candidate, Luce met with him in Paris — and fell in quick, political love. Luce reported how impressed he was with Ike, together with his private appreciation for the “sound of the person’s voice” and the “the twinkle” in his “brightest blue eyes.”
Right this moment, there’s an expectation, not at all times met, that journalists be nonpartisan of their protection. Issues have been related in 1952, however although his publications have been ostensibly nonpartisan, Luce directed his magazines TIME and Life to jot down favorably concerning the five-star normal, together with a Life editorial entitled “The Case for Ike.”
Later, Eisenhower stated Life’s editorial helped encourage him to enter the race. As soon as Ike was in, TIME was so favorable to Eisenhower that his marketing campaign supervisor, Henry Cabot Lodge, would hand out copies of its points to most of the individuals he met with.
In one other uncommon transfer, Luce supplied marketing campaign workers for Ike from his personal group, together with speechwriters Emmet Hughes and C.D. Jackson, and marketing campaign adviser John Knox Jessup. Hughes wrote probably the most well-known line of the Eisenhower marketing campaign, “If elected, I shall go to Korea.” This line was meant to exhibit that Ike would give attention to ending the battle in Korea — and it labored, serving to propel him to victory in opposition to Democrat Adlai Stevenson, garnering 55 % of the favored vote and sweeping the Electoral School.
Luce additionally helped create the imaginative and prescient for the marketing campaign. He invited John Foster Dulles to explain a Republican international coverage imaginative and prescient in a Life article. This text, “A Coverage of Boldness,” grew to become the premise for Eisenhower’s international coverage plank within the Republican platform, and Dulles grew to become Eisenhower’s secretary of State.
When Ike defeated Stevenson, Luce wired to mates: “Victory, it’s fantastic.” And he was quickly to benefit from the fruits of his labor. Luce’s spouse, Claire Boothe Luce, joined the administration as ambassador to Italy. Luce acquired to see his imaginative and prescient applied on the international coverage entrance, and he was capable of move on his coverage recommendation to administration officers like Dulles, Hughes, Jackson and his spouse (Jessup selected to not be a part of the administration). Luce was additionally happy that Ike proved to be president, presiding over a interval of peace and prosperity. Accordingly, Luce made positive to tout Eisenhower’s accomplishments to his magazines’ 30 million readers.
Luce benefited from having Eisenhower within the White Home, however he additionally incurred prices. TIME staffers grumbled about working for “Eisenhower’s mouthpiece.” He responded to inside criticism by telling staffers, “I’m your boss. I suppose which means I can hearth any of you,” which didn’t endear him to the group.
In the meantime, TIME took a reputational hit within the Eisenhower years for being too pro-Ike. A joke went round that “Time was even-handed throughout election years: Half the time it praised the Republicans, and half the time it damned the Democrats.” Intellectuals turned on TIME, and the publication got here to be seen, dismissively, as a middle-brow publication. Luce retired in 1964 and died simply three years later at 68. Time grew to become extra liberal beneath his successors than beneath Luce and is now a shadow of what it as soon as was, however that’s due extra to the web than something Luce-related.
As for Musk, he clearly likes doing issues in a different way, one thing he famous in a 2021 Saturday Night time Dwell look: “To anybody I’ve offended, I simply need to say: I reinvented electrical vehicles and I’m sending individuals to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you suppose I used to be additionally going to be a chill, regular dude?” One might argue that method has labored for him this far, making him one of many richest individuals in human historical past. Nonetheless, Musk ought to take heed: Luce and his empire suffered actual penalties from his political involvement, and blowback in the present day could possibly be even higher. Twitter/X took successful when Musk purchased it in 2022; each promoting and engagement are down considerably since he took the reins. Nonetheless, X has 50 million U.S. customers (and 300 million worldwide); his endorsement of Trump might drive away sad customers. Musk clearly desires to develop X’s attain, and being persona non grata to massive swaths of the nation might make that mission that a lot tougher.
Different Musk merchandise, together with Tesla or House X, might doubtlessly endure as properly. Tesla wants particular person shoppers. However he additionally wants authorities contracts, which could possibly be tougher to come back by if purchasers dislike his politics. Michael Jordan put it properly: “Republicans purchase sneakers, too.” Properly, Democrats purchase vehicles, too. And on the federal government procurement aspect, each Tesla and House X might doubtlessly see fewer contracts from a vengeful Kamala Harris administration.
A 3rd challenge is the issue of selective enforcement. There are such a lot of laws on the books that not each firm will get hit for each violation, however firms beneath further scrutiny could possibly be. Since President Joe Biden has come to workplace, Musk companies have been topic to probes from the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, the Justice Division, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Federal Commerce Fee, simply to call just a few. This doesn’t imply that Biden personally ordered these probes, however as The Wall Road Journal editorial board noticed, “We doubt any order from on excessive has been despatched, nevertheless it doesn’t should be when a determine turns into Progressive Enemy No. 1.” Add to this the prices on the worldwide entrance, as European regulators are additionally probing Musk’s use of X to advertise Trump.
Musk is definitely conscious of those challenges, however this historical past offers further context. As Henry Luce discovered, too sturdy a guess on politics might be dangerous — even when you find yourself profitable your guess.
