Analysis: Bolsonaro leverages billions of Musk to pinch political dividends

Jair Bolsonaro took advantage of Elon Musk’s billions to pinch some political dividends in his favor. In the script created for the event with the businessman, the president worked to sell the meeting as an achievement of his government.

Musk landed in Brazil with the aim of doing what he knows: making money. The billionaire saw an opportunity to offer services from his satellite company to the Amazon region and identified a special goodwill from the Bolsonaro government in this business.

While profits are his priority, Musk doesn’t seem bothered to play the game of politics.

Shortly after announcing his intention to buy Twitter, the businessman promised to reverse Donald Trump’s controversial ban from the network. This week, he twice announced that he would stop voting for the Democratic Party to support Republicans in the US.

Bolsonaristas took advantage of the billionaire’s disposition and took a ride on the popularity of a character with wide exposure and talent to occupy headlines and timelines.

Bolsonaro’s three-minute speech during the meeting made this objective evident. “The most important thing about his presence is immaterial,” said the president, as if the businessman had a purpose that went beyond commercial interests.

Bolsonaro used Musk as a poster boy for one of his main political battles.

Citing the billionaire’s interest in Twitter, the president said that the acquisition of the platform would be a step towards what he calls “freedom” – which usually works, in general, as a defense of the propagation of radical speeches.

Picking up momentum, Bolsonaro even sold the idea that he and the billionaire fight side by side: he took the nickname used by his voters and called the businessman a “myth of freedom”.

The president took advantage of the double to bolster his artillery in what he considers a propaganda war involving the Amazon. The investments announced by Musk, according to the president, could help to publicize “the exuberance of this region” and “how it is preserved by us”.

In addition to providing broadband connections to 19,000 schools in rural areas, Musk’s satellites are expected to monitor illegal deforestation and fires in the Amazon – a service that the president often attacks when the numbers expose the devastation of forests.

It is not known exactly what Bolsonaro expects from the businessman in this regard, but the president seems to believe that the South African billionaire will be useful in confronting foreign governments and celebrities who criticize his management of the environment.

No marketing move led by Musk should be enough to undo Bolsonaro’s bad image in this area or reverse the international pariah status that the government has embraced. But for the domestic public, the president could pull off the argument that he has an influential partner out there.

The government operation allowed Bolsonaro to exploit Musk as a kind of government seal of approval. The president seized the opportunity, but he should also know that no super-rich has the power to save a country in trouble.