Musk pushes private financial interests in meeting with Indian Prime Minister
When Elon Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, the pair was seated in front of the American and Indian flags, an arrangement that typically accompanies a meeting between world leaders. Formalities were curtailed slightly by Musk bringing along three of his young children and their mother, Shivon Zilis, who is also an executive at one of Musk’s companies, Neuralink. Modi brought a throng of top advisers, including his national security adviser and external affairs minister.
The summit was held at Blair House, a building across from the White House used to host foreign dignitaries. Nevertheless, President Trump has claimed that Musk did not meet with Modi in an official capacity as a member of the Trump administration. “I would imagine he met, possibly, because you know he’s running a company,” Trump said last week after being asked about the meeting..
The contents of their meeting were not made public, but CNBC reported that the agenda included renewing talks about Tesla building a plant in India and Musk’s desire to sell SpaceX’s Starlink internet service in the country.
Representatives of Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
The meeting was the first time Musk has met with a foreign leader since being named to lead the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency Service, or DOGE, last month. It was the most brazen example of how Musk is leveraging his powerful position in the administration to advance his private economic interests.
Musk's relationship with Modi is critical as India is a key growth market for several of his companies.
Tesla, which is supposed to roll out a more affordable model this year in the hopes of expanding its consumer base, has sought to expand its operations and sales in India. But high tariffs on cars manufactured abroad have stymied Tesla’s growth in India, the world’s most populous country. (Earlier this month, India began reviewing its tariffs on luxury foreign cars after Trump complained repeatedly about its high import fees.)
To see reduced duties, India requires foreign auto manufacturers to invest nearly half a billion dollars into facilities in the country and pledge to begin manufacturing from a native factory within three years. Tesla has been unwilling to accept those terms. Musk was set to visit India and meet with Modi last year, but the trip was canceled. Bloomberg News reported in July of last year that the government in New Delhi surmised Tesla lacked the capital to commit to the requisite investments in India.
With lagging sales figures in the affluent markets of Western Europe, China, and the U.S., Tesla will need to open new markets to stimulate growth. India, a burgeoning tech manufacturing hub, represents a prime growth market. Last year, electric vehicles accounted for just 2% of car sales in the country, but the government has said it wants to increase that figure to 30% over the next five years.
Musk also wants to launch his Starlink satellite internet service in India, but has encountered a series of regulatory and security hurdles. The head of the country’s telecommunications ministry said in November that Starlink had not fulfilled the security requirements needed for an operating license. Starlink’s application in India is currently under review. (Last week, Musk also met with a top Bangladeshi official to discuss launching Starlink in the country.)
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, accused Musk of abusing his position in the Trump administration. “Musk is effectively operating as the Secretary of State,” the lawmaker wrote in a post on X. “[A]nd he is meeting with a key foreign leader not to ask for concessions that would benefit Americans, but for concessions that would make him rich.”
The White House has said plainly that it will allow Musk to self-police his manifold conflicts of interest. “If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this month. On Thursday, Trump told reporters he won’t allow Musk to “do anything where there’s a conflict of interest.” But he also said he was open to Musk securing new government contracts while working in the administration.
As for Modi, he appropriated Musk’s efficiency propaganda and Trump’s campaign slogan to pay homage to the new government in Washington. “I talked [to Musk] about India’s efforts towards reform and furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance,’” he wrote in a post on X. In a follow-up post, he said India is working to "MIGA" — Make India Great Again.
It looks like you are being careful and that’s good. Powerful enemies and all that. You have to be hitting a nerve with your excellent work.
Thanks to the lucrative government defense and space related contracts and lies, to sell his supposed self driving vehicle that was going to be "just around the corner", year after bloody year, Musk has leverage enough $'s to initiate a US government takeover supported by a mass of under educated disgruntled and purchased Americans that have no real concept of the historic danger that lies before them.
He and others within the project 2025 cabal have captured the US congress and the rule of law. He has now become a world wide cult figure. Focused on the least educated disgruntled individuals, the "masses" (that are conveniently poorer by design). He is seeking world wide control of other nations economies under the guise of making them more efficient and more profitable for all. It's too tempting for those he meets with as he now controls the US government and can make or break any that oppose him, literally and figuratively, using the US economic and military as a tool of dictatorial diplomacy as Trump is happily giving over the hassle of having to deal with running the country, of which he is wholly unqualified to do...to both the 2025 cabal and Musk. "We the people" are no longer in control of our government.