By Mayank Chhaya-
The January 20th presidential inauguration will likely witness the rise of two potentially conflicting power centers in President Donald J. Trump and his current closest adviser Elon Musk vis-à-vis India and China respectively arising out of their business interests.
India has emerged as Trump’s standout destination for his real estate branding business expected to include ten properties. There are already two Trump Towers in India, one each in Pune and Mumbai. The New York Times reported on December 9, 2024, “Kalpesh Mehta, the founder of Tribeca Developers, a Mumbai-based company that works with the Trump Organization, told Indian newspapers in November that there would be Trump Tower buildings in the southern cities of Hyderabad and Bengaluru and more in Mumbai, Pune and the exurbs of New Delhi.”
Once they come up, Trump will have the highest number of buildings branded after his name outside the U.S. According to the Times, “There is one Trump Tower each in the Philippines, Turkey and Uruguay, and the company has struck deals to bring Trump Towers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.” India with many more is clearly of considerable business value to him and his family.
Musk, on the other hand, has huge investments in China running into several billion dollars. On December 20, 2024, Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to congressional leadership, saying, “Musk’s investments in China and his ties with the Chinese Community Party have only grown over the last few years with Tesla’s Shanghai plant producing about 50 percent of Tesla’s global automobile output.”
She said, “Given the need for Chinese government approvals for his company’s projects in the country, it is similarly unsurprising, yet concerning, that Musk has ingratiated himself with Chinese Communist Party leadership.”
At the time, Musk made several posts critical of DeLauro, including saying that she “needs to be expelled from Congress!”
With that as the backdrop, it would be interesting to see how Trump approaches his foreign policy priorities when it comes to balancing between India and China. On the face of it, it would be logical for him to prioritize his own corporate interests in India over those of Musk’s in China. That has the potential to be a point of tension between the two.
For Musk a great deal rides on his investments in his “gigafactory” in Shanghai, said to be Tesla’s largest manufacturing facility. It is crucial for him to keep the Chinese leadership in good humor and that could mean having to advise Trump in favor of China over India.
It would be useful for India’s Ministry of External Affairs to factor in these details, especially the oversized influence of Musk in the new Trump administration and how his corporate interests in China may motivate him to lean on Trump in the context of how Washington deals with the two Asian giants.
It is conceivable that Musk would try to moderate not just Trump’s highly aggressive tariffs regime with China but also Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio’s strident anti-Beijing views.
Even though on paper, Musk’s government role is limited to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with drastically reducing the size of the bureaucracy and cutting down the deficit by $2 trillion, the mega billionaire has had his imprint in many other areas. He has been a permanent fixture by Trump’s side since November 5, 2024, including his meetings with foreign dignitaries.
Come Monday and as the new Trump administration begins its work, New Delhi will have to watch out for many of Musk’s moves as well when it comes Beijing. It is an unusual challenge given that he is known to be both blunt and capricious like Trump.
