Editor
Elon Musk’s much-ballyhooed, glitch-riddled Monday interview with Donald Trump was simply the most recent 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 referred to as Twitter.
Every election cycle, celebrities attempt to put their thumb on the dimensions in favor of their candidate. And whereas a brand new examine reveals that celebrities like Megan Thee Stallion or Kid 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 American residents, Musk and different CEOs have the correct 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. But that engagement can come at a value.
History supplies a notice of warning: TIME founder Henry Luce totally invested himself in selling the marketing campaign of General 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 House. But finally, his enthusiastic embrace of Eisenhower had a detrimental impression on his journal’s journalistic status.
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 completely new in American journalism and it caught on, rapidly gaining a whole bunch of 1000’s of subscribers on its approach to ultimately tens of hundreds of thousands. 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 preferred part referred to 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 is my obligation to go on hating him.” The relationship with Roosevelt’s substitute Harry Truman was not a lot better.
In 1952, Luce noticed a chance to finish 20 years of Democratic dominance of the White House. 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 a wide range of methods.
Even earlier than Eisenhower was an official candidate, Luce met with him in Paris — and fell in instant, 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.”
Today, there’s an expectation, not at all times met, that journalists be nonpartisan of their protection. Things have been comparable in 1952, however despite the fact that his publications have been ostensibly nonpartisan, Luce directed his magazines TIME and Life to write down favorably concerning the five-star basic, together with a Life editorial entitled “The Case for Ike.”
Later, Eisenhower mentioned Life’s editorial helped encourage him to enter the race. Once 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 employees for Ike from his personal crew, together with speechwriters Emmet Hughes and C.D. Jackson, and marketing campaign adviser John Knox Jessup. Hughes wrote essentially the most well-known line of the Eisenhower marketing campaign, “If elected, I shall go to Korea.” This line was supposed to reveal 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 College.
Luce additionally helped create the imaginative and prescient for the marketing campaign. He invited John Foster Dulles to explain a Republican overseas coverage imaginative and prescient in a Life article. This article, “A Policy of Boldness,” grew to become the idea for Eisenhower’s overseas coverage plank within the Republican platform, and Dulles grew to become Eisenhower’s secretary of State.
When Ike defeated Stevenson, Luce wired to pals: “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 bought to see his imaginative and prescient carried out on the overseas coverage entrance, and he was in a position to cross 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 a superb president, presiding over a interval of peace and prosperity. Accordingly, Luce made certain to tout Eisenhower’s accomplishments to his magazines’ 30 million readers.
Luce benefited from having Eisenhower within the White House, 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 crew.
Meanwhile, 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 considered, dismissively, as a middle-brow publication. Luce retired in 1964 and died simply three years later at 68. Time grew to become extra liberal below his successors than below 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 another way, one thing he famous in a 2021 Saturday Night Live 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. Still, Musk ought to take heed: Luce and his empire suffered actual penalties from his political involvement, and blowback at the moment could possibly be even larger. Twitter/X took successful when Musk purchased it in 2022; each promoting and engagement are down considerably since he took the reins. Still, X has 50 million U.S. customers (and 300 million worldwide); his endorsement of Trump might drive away sad customers. Musk clearly needs to broaden X’s attain, and being persona non grata to giant swaths of the nation might make that mission that a lot more durable.
Other Musk merchandise, together with Tesla or Space X, might doubtlessly undergo as properly. Tesla wants particular person shoppers. But he additionally wants authorities contracts, which could possibly be more durable to return by if purchasers dislike his politics. Michael Jordan put it properly: “Republicans purchase sneakers, too.” Well, Democrats purchase vehicles, too. And on the federal government procurement aspect, each Tesla and Space X might doubtlessly see fewer contracts from a vengeful Kamala Harris administration.
A 3rd difficulty is the issue of selective enforcement. There are so many laws on the books that not each firm will get hit for each violation, however corporations below further scrutiny could possibly be. Since President Joe Biden has come to workplace, Musk companies have been topic to probes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Justice Department, the National Labor Relations Board, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Federal Trade Commission, simply to call a number of. This doesn’t imply that Biden personally ordered these probes, however as The Wall Street Journal editorial board noticed, “We doubt any order from on excessive has been despatched, however it doesn’t have to 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 supplies further context. As Henry Luce discovered, too robust a wager on politics could be dangerous — even when you find yourself successful your wager.
