Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk reacts next to Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump during a campaign rally, at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5.Brian Snyder/Reuters
Elon Musk has become such a Donald Trump sycophant that he appeared on stage, jumping up and down in joy for him, at a rally over the weekend in Butler, Pa.
The world’s richest man then took the microphone and, wearing a black MAGA cap, told the crowd, “As you can see, I’m not just MAGA. I’m dark MAGA.” Meaning the heavyweight brand.
Mr. Musk then announced that Mr. Trump must win the election “to preserve the constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America.”
Despite Mr. Trump’s appalling track record on such matters, he wasn’t kidding. Nor was Mr. Musk kidding, as strange as it may be, about diving headlong into the far-right fever swamp.
Strange? Not so long ago, as Walter Isaacson wrote in his biography of him, Mr. Musk “developed a deep disdain for Mr. Trump, whom he considered a con man.”
And what better example of the former president’s con-man credentials than Mr. Musk’s embedding with him?
The video clips of him pirouetting to the Sun King went viral, but there was no sign the 53-year-old South African-born wunderkind was shamed. What a catch for Donald Trump he is. Mr. Musk is a mega force in manufacturing with Tesla; in the solar system with SpaceX and Starlink; in the media world with his ownership of X; and in finance with riches like Croesus. Is there anyone else in the private sector who comes even close to this scope of achievement and power?
But we’ve left out government. Mr. Musk toadies to Mr. Trump because he wants White House powers added to the list.
His influence is such that he could be the kingmaker in this campaign, putting Mr. Trump back on the throne. Mr. Musk, who has over 200 million followers on X, has turned the site into a Trump promotion vehicle. He’s poured tens of millions of dollars into Republican causes. He’s offering anyone cash (exactly US$47) if they help find potential swing-state Trump voters. He’s getting more air time pummelling Kamala Harris and the wokeism of Democrats – which he despises – than any other Republican, except for the two at the top of the ticket. It’s like it’s the Trump-Vance-Musk ticket.
If Mr. Trump rewins the White House, the Musk enterprises stand to get big tax breaks. Moreover, Mr. Trump has offered him a power position: the running of a government efficiency commission, making sure public money – and that would ostensibly include huge subsidies that companies like Tesla and SpaceX receive – is well spent.
Mr. Trump alone is dangerous enough. Throw in the radicalized Elon Musk with his conspiracy theories and his media power, industry power, and money power, and the chances of the country ever coming together shrink even more.
Mr. Musk told Tucker Carlson in foul language in an interview this week how awful it would be for him personally if Ms. Harris wins. He’s desperate for a Trump victory – so desperate that in the event of a close loss, we could well see him throwing all his resources behind Mr. Trump in a fight to have the result discredited and overturned.
If there’s a good thing for the Democrats, it is that in taking hard-right positions, Mr. Musk is not expanding the Republican appeal beyond the Trump base. He is preaching to the converted.
With his extremism, the question is whether he will scare away as many from voting for Mr. Trump as voting for him.
In the Carlson interview, he said, “My view is that if Trump doesn’t win this election, this is the last election we’re going to have.” His wild conspiratorial claim is that the Democrats would bring in so many illegal immigrants to swing states who would vote Democratic that they would win those states every time. (Last I looked, illegal immigrants weren’t allowed to vote.)
On X – which he had promised to make politically neutral – Mr. Musk the disrupter posted an AI-generated image that portrayed Ms. Harris as a communist in red garb, replete with a hammer and sickle. A New York Times investigation of 171 posts Mr. Musk made on X during a five-day period in September found that one-third were either false, misleading or shorn of context.
As the Isaacson biography reveals, Elon Musk is not the most stable of men. How many geniuses are?
He has Asperger’s syndrome and acknowledges in the book that he may be bipolar. He’s been bipolar politically. He used to lean Democratic and voted for Barack Obama. When the Democrats went woke he moved away. And look at what we’re stuck with now.