Who knows. Trying to figure out the thought processes and true intentions of America’s most bizarre and erratic public figure is hard enough: when the top two form an odd alliance it’s almost impossible to know what’s really going on. You can decide for yourself who is number one.

This may simply be Musk being his typically contrary self. He has little love for the Biden-Harris administration, having been conspicuously uninvited to a White House EV summit, and made the subject of federal investigations into the range and ‘full self-driving’ capabilities of his cars, and labour relations at his US factories.

It may also have little to do with cars at all. Despite once describing himself as a ‘moderate Democrat’ and vowing to stay out of politics, Musk’s public stance on immigration and gender issues is now far to the right, and he has been accused of disseminating pro-Trump election misinformation and failing to prevent Russian attempts to influence the election on X.

But there’s probably also some slightly counter-intuitive self-interest at work here. Although there is no ‘EV mandate’ in the US, Biden did introduce the Inflation Reduction Act, a vast and transformative piece of legislation with bipartisan support. Among many other provisions it reset the incentives for electric car purchases in the US, with the aim of increasing EV adoption but also encouraging US manufacturing and reducing imports of Chinese cars, parts and battery minerals. There were also incentives to improve and grow America’s public charging network.

Elon isn’t a believer in state subsidies, and in the fully-electric future which he envisaged as recently as last year in his Master Plan Part 3, such subsidies would fade away anyway. Ending them now, while Tesla enjoys a huge lead in both EV manufacturing and charging as its rivals ramp up and absorb huge losses, would solidify its advantage.

Joe Biden has already imposed a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made EVs which Harris won’t reverse, but Trump is likely to go much further, with tariffs of up to 60 per cent on all Chinese goods and possibly up to 20 per cent on all imports, from anywhere. With Tesla factories already well-established in China and Europe, the trade war that Trump’s nativism and protectionism is likely to spark with both will only benefit Elon.

Musk drew the most ire for citing ‘headaches and nausea’ as the main threats from increased carbon dioxide levels, rather than droughts, rising sea levels and other disasters, and for his relaxed view of the speed with which we should transition. His views on the hydrocarbon industry didn’t differ much from previous pronoucements but had clearly been softened to appeal to a Trump audience. ‘If we were to stop using oil and gas right now, we would all be starving and the economy would collapse,’ he said. ‘We do over time want to move to a sustainable-energy economy because eventually you do run out of oil and gas.’

In return, Trump is moderating his views on EVs, having once described them as ‘lunacy’ and saying their supporters should ‘rot in hell’: though his backtracking somehow managed to make Musk look like a model of tact and diplomacy. ‘I’m for electric cars,’ he said at a recent rally. ‘I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly. I have no choice.’

But perhaps this is all a giant nothingburger anyway. Elon Musk is not Taylor Swift. His endorsement of Trump is unlikely to have anything like the impact of her open support for Harris, though his campaign contributions might. His commitment to saving the planet might have receded sufficiently for him to downplay it in return for some short-term, tactical political gains should Trump win, but I wouldn’t expect to see a V8 Cybertruck any time soon.