Elon sees the writing on the wall that the American government is going to flip to Republican two years from now.

This will almost certainly usher in an era of 8-12 years of "strong republican" leadership, with front runners like Desantis unlikely to pull the same dumb moves as Trump.

He wants to create early allies in this system so they will leave him alone and probably even push his agenda.

For example the launch site expansion in Texas has been suspended by the EPA, not a problem when the next president comes in and fires the head of the EPA, at Elon's suggestion.