Elon Musk made more money than anyone in the world while Trump was president

America’s first billionaire president was kind to America’s billionaires, whose fortunes greatly increased as the stock market rose. No billionaire has done better than Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk. From the time Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2017 until his term ended on January 19, 2021, Musk’s net worth skyrocketed by over $ 170 billion, Forbes calculated.

Shares of Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla have climbed 1,625% over the past four years, far outpacing the stock market as a whole. (During that time, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained around 70% and 60%, respectively.)

Musk’s fortune has grown at an unprecedented rate. On the day Trump took office, Musk had a net worth of $ 12.9 billion. He is now the second richest person in the world, with a net worth of $ 184 billion, according to Forbes‘estimates.

Billionaire Tesla is just $ 6 billion behind the richest person on the planet, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is worth $ 190 billion. The two billionaires have spent much of the past few weeks battling for the title of the richest person in the world. Musk first took the top spot from Bezos on Jan.8, 2021, before the Amazon billionaire later reclaimed it, Forbes calculated.

Musk and Trump have had a complicated relationship since 2016. Musk initially served on two of Trump’s advisory boards, advocating for environmental sustainability. When Trump announced to the world in 2017 that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, Musk decided to step down. “Climate change is real”, said at the time, adding that “leaving Paris is not good for America or the world”.

Most recently, Trump has praised Musk, calling him in January one of the “great geniuses of America.” While Trump has supported the progress made by Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, his enthusiasm for electric vehicles has been more tempered (a substantial part of the support for the Trump campaign has come from major oil and gas interests).

Not that Musk’s earnings are directly attributable to Trump. Over the past four years, Tesla has won over investors by introducing new vehicles, increasing deliveries and exceeding analysts’ expectations. Additionally, the majority of Musk’s gains during Trump’s presidency came after President Joe Biden was elected at the end of 2020 and the Democrats took over the Senate. With Biden backed by a Democratic Congress likely to back his climate change agenda, investors are jumping on the green tech bandwagon. Tesla shares have risen more than 100% in the past three months, indicating to investors that the Biden administration will be more environmentally friendly towards electric vehicles.

After an initial snob, Tesla was added to the S&P 500 Index on December 21 of last year, a move that pushed its share price up further. The world’s most valuable automaker, Tesla produced half a million cars in 2020, a fraction of the output of global giants like GM and Toyota.