Business has been intertwined with American politics since before the nation’s founding. And although unelected business leaders play a major role in financing campaigns and policy initiatives, few in recent memory have taken as personal and public a role in politics as Elon Musk.
Even before the 2024 election, the South African-born entrepreneur often interacted with the U.S. government via his companies. His electric car manufacturer, Tesla, has received green energy subsidies, while his company Space X holds multiple contracts with NASA and the U.S. military to provide space-launch services, develop vehicles and operate flights.
Through SpaceX, Musk also played a key role in U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion by providing Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukrainian forces. Musk’s involvement in the war became a source of concern after reports emerged that he was directly making decisions regarding the terminals’ use in the field and was in personal contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials.
Musk attained an even more notable role in the media through his 2022 purchase of social media platform Twitter, which had become a de facto public square where journalists, companies and government officials made public announcements and engaged in discussion alongside regular users.
Renaming the site X, Musk overhauled verification and content moderation policies to combat what he described as left-wing bias, reinstating President Donald Trump’s account as well as multiple accounts that had been banned for hate speech. As the presidential election drew near, Musk used the platform to boost Trump’s policy positions, eventually making campaign appearances alongside him and sitting in on his calls with foreign leaders.
Musk’s involvement culminated in the businessman being announced as head of a new advisory commission on government efficiency, named after an internet meme and cryptocurrency that Musk himself had popularized.
But while Musk’s involvement in U.S. politics may be unusual compared to his contemporaries, it recalls earlier eras when larger-than-life business leaders exercised great influence over the country’s affairs.
J.P. Morgan (1837-1913)
Having made his early career on Wall Street, John Pierpont Morgan gained fame by reorganizing the country’s booming railroad industry in the wake of the Civil War. By organizing conferences among railroad companies and consolidating the ones he held shares in, he helped create an integrated rail system, as he would later do with the nation’s steel production.
When the economic panic of 1893 saw the U.S. running out of gold reserves, Morgan’s company stepped in to bail out the government, supplying gold in exchange for Treasury bonds.
Then in 1907, when a financial panic threatened to collapse the nation’s banks, Morgan was again credited with saving the country by bringing together bank executives and forcing them to agree on a mutual stabilization plan.
Morgan is remembered as a serious businessman who prioritized stability over speculation and supported hospitals, museums and universities through his philanthropic efforts. But Morgan’s integration of railroad and steel industries created monopolies that inspired the nation’s earliest antitrust laws.
Moreover, the fact that the U.S. government twice had to rely on a private businessman to bail out its finances became a major cause for concern, leading to the creation of the Federal Reserve.
Henry Ford (1863-1947)
Henry Ford is best known for developing the first mass-produced automobile, making what was previously a luxury product affordable for the average consumer. Beyond the road, Ford popularized the assembly line and the 40-hour workweek as well as setting higher wage standards under the reasoning that better-paid and happier workers would be more productive and able to buy the cars they made.
Ford believed that industry and consumerism would not only benefit the economy but promote world peace, actively campaigning against war as a waste of productivity. Having failed to prevent U.S. entry into World War I, Ford dutifully supplied the war effort and quieted his activism, but he still ran for U.S. Senate in 1918 — a race he narrowly lost.
Yet not all aspects of Ford’s reputation have aged well. The tycoon’s paternalistic and generous approach to his employees went hand-in-hand with his adamant opposition to unionization efforts and worker strikes, which were suppressed by force.
His pacifism had a darker side as well. Ford was notably antisemitic and believed that Jewish people had been responsible for World War I as well as multiple ills in American society. After buying the Dearborn Independent newspaper in 1918, Ford used it to publish multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories, stopping only after threats of a boycott against his companies.
As part of the America First Committee, Ford campaigned against U.S. entry into World War II and continued to do business with Nazi Germany up until the U.S. declared war in 1941.
William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
As owner of the San Francisco Examiner and the New York Morning Journal, Hearst built a media empire while pioneering a form of sensationalistic reporting that came to be known as “yellow journalism.” The Journal’s exaggerated reports of Spain’s colonial violence in Cuba inflamed American opinion and increased calls to intervene. When Congress eventually declared war on Spain in 1898, Hearst personally traveled to Cuba to cover the conflict.
Hearst’s media operations would later expand to more than two dozen newspapers in multiple cities, as well as magazines and book publishers.
After setting his sights on politics, Hearst briefly served in the U.S. House of Representatives for New York’s 11th district but narrowly lost subsequent mayoral and gubernatorial bids. Hearst’s papers had published editorials violently denouncing President William McKinley, and he was blamed for incitement upon McKinley’s assassination in 1901.
Initially a progressive populist, Hearst shifted toward right-wing isolationism in the wake of World War I and the 1917 Russian Revolution. While denouncing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal policies as anti-American, Hearst expressed admiration for Hitler and published articles by the German leader. Nevertheless, Hearst supported U.S. entry into World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, shifting his focus to promoting anti-Asian sentiment and the internment of Japanese Americans.
Today, Hearst is remembered as the real-life inspiration for the film “Citizen Kane,” which was made during his lifetime and which he sought to block from being released.
Conclusion
Tycoons who shaped American politics in past eras inspired admiration and controversy, their impact becoming clear only in hindsight. It remains to be seen whether Musk’s influence will outlast the Trump administration, and whether other modern-day moguls will follow his example.
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