Kardashian’s Tesla pics, Elon Musk and why people care so much

On Tuesday, Kim Kardashian invited her followers to meet her “new friend” — the Tesla bot. 
Kardashian showcased her robot waving, dancing and forming heart-hands with her. But not all of followers viewed the content as purely entertainment. Some took it as an indication that she voted for president-elect Donald Trump, who picked Tesla CEO Elon Musk to co-lead the inaugural “Department of Government Efficiency.” 
“Kim and her stupid robot is all I need to see to know she voted for Trump,” one user wrote. Another posted: “Women who support Kim K? Which is more important ya womanhood or skims? Make her feel it!… We know who she voted for now.”
The Tesla bot isn’t the first object to become a political signifier post-election. Some white women started wearing blue friendship bracelets on their wrists after the election to show that they voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. Others, especially Black and Latina women, labeled that trend as performative allyship and called on those women to hold their right-leaning friends and family members accountable instead.
Still, the trend speaks to the need some people are feeling to suss out others’ political affiliations in a polarized climate post-election. According to Jessa Lingel, associate professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, the reaction to Kardashian’s Tesla posts underscores it.
People are trying to understand who around them holds views they may disagree with, Lingel says. “And this can lead to the kind of scrutiny around Kim Kardashian, for example.”
Melvin Williams, an associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University, says while people will politicize videos like Kardashian’s, the election has already been called — and this focus may be misplaced.
“It’s very clear that (Trump) was more popular than ever in this race, and that didn’t have anything to do with Kim Kardashian,” he says.
Kardashian worked with Trump on prison reform during his first presidency, but assumptions that she voted for him in 2024 circulated heavily after the Tesla bot video.
However, Williams notes her endorsement of the Tesla bot could be rooted in business, not her politics.
“People will raise questions and undoubtedly make this a political thing. My assertion is that for Kim Kardashian, this has always been about yielding money power and social influence,” Williams says. “Who is to say that this was not simply a product promotion that she was paid for?”
However, influencers likely know what they’re doing when they post content that could be seen as political, explained Jess Rauchberg, an assistant professor of communication technologies at Seton Hall University.
“These creators realize that they can bring in attention and they’ll do whatever they can to aggregate that because the more views they get, the more money they’re making,” Rauchberg previously told USA TODAY. “But everything that we do has a political consequence.”
It’s a “deeply human thing to look for patterns and clues during uncertain times,” Lingel says. “Every community has their own form of creating codes that can transmit information and signify belonging, from secret handshakes among Freemasons to hanky codes in the LGBTQ cruising scene.”
Anxiety and stress can also manifest in different ways, according to Dr. Shairi Turner, the chief health officer of Crisis Text Line.
“(Anxiety is) actually a normal response to what we know are potentially going to be some polarizing times,” Turner previously told USA TODAY. “Expect to have those difficult conversations. If you don’t want to, really be boundaried about when and where you’re going to talk about politics.”
But having hard conversations with loved ones is distinct from getting invested in celebrity viewpoints, Williams says.
Lingel explains, “We can look for clues in the everyday communications of politicians, and the celebrities who are in their orbit.” But “the danger is that this kind of desire to find patterns and clues can also drive conspiracy communities.”
As for Kardashian, she seems to be unbothered by online debates about her beliefs.
On Wednesday, she shared a suggestive photoshoot holding hands with her Tesla bot. Her caption? A simple alien emoji.