Opinion: Musk tries to buy votes while taking billions from taxpayers

Elon Musk’s recent political maneuvering is not just questionable − it’s a blatant attempt to leverage his influence for personal gain.
With billions in federal contracts at stake for his SpaceX and Tesla, the potential for serious conflicts of interest threatens democracy as we know it.  
The CEO is known for being adventurous and visionary, but his recent political moves are raising ethical eyebrows, and rightly so.
Musk gave $75 million in only three months to a pro-Trump political action committee that he created, concentrating on voter turnout in battleground states. He also has appeared at reelection campaign rallies for former President Donald Trump.
And now he has taken the legally questionable step of promising to hand out a $1 million check each day to a registered voter who signs an online petition and lives in one of seven swing states.
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In July, Musk used his social media platform, X, to endorse Trump for president.
Under normal circumstances, a celebrity endorsing a political candidate wouldn’t raise red flags. However, the billionaire’s endorsement coupled with his companies’ lucrative federal contracts ‒ and Trump’s suggestion that Musk should be involved in a new government efficiency commission if he’s reelected ‒ creates a glaring conflict of interest, one that could be interpreted as a strategic play to ensure continued government funding. 
NASA and Musk’s SpaceX are in partnership under the Space Act Agreement. The partnership, developed a decade ago, provides America’s space program with the means to frequently and reliably launch satellites and send crews on scientific missions.
SpaceX in turn receives billions of dollars in payments from the federal government.
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Musk’s electric vehicle company also thrives on government funding. By this year, Tesla has won 14% of the contracts awarded to build charging plazas supported by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, also known as NEVI.
Funny enough, the Biden-Harris administration enacted NEVI.
Trump has railed against electric vehicles and government subsidies for them throughout his campaign. He’s even said he would consider eliminating EV tax credits. So why would Musk endorse a political leader whose policies could severely hurt one of his core businesses?  
Musk’s political positioning is a stark reminder of how corporate interests can manipulate public policy and taxpayer resources for profit. The implications go beyond Musk and Trump, raising broader ethical concerns about the integrity of public-private partnerships.
If corporate figures can leverage their influence to maintain or expand government contracts, it erodes public trust in a system that should prioritize fairness over favoritism. Policymakers must enact stronger safeguards against conflicts of interest to preserve the integrity of government funding and to protect democracy from the corrosive effects of unchecked corporate power.
Marla Bautista is a military fellow columnist for USA TODAY Opinion.