James Ashley wrote a 2023 ebook on Elon Musk, with a abstract describing the world’s richest and most hyperactive man as a “powerful but weak man baby, susceptible to Jekyll-and-Hyde temper swings, with an exceedingly excessive tolerance for danger, a yearning for drama and success, an epic sense of mission, and an insane depth”.
Ashley’s insights had been solid out of an exploration of Tesla, Twitter (now X), Starlink and Musk’s prodigiously chaotic not-so-private life (six reported companions, 14 kids and counting), however they apply equally to his previous three months as US President Donald Trump’s political muse, vested with maybe extra energy than any personal determine in US historical past.
Whereas Musk is way from the primary enterprise determine tantalised by the problem of translating monetary wealth into political energy (suppose the Carnegies and Rockefellers, dubbed “robber barons” in Twenties America, or Britain’s press barons: the Northcliffes, Beaverbrooks and Rothermeres), his prodigious ascent below the benefaction of Trump has raised broader questions in regards to the unprecedented empowerment of the US “political donor class” – and whether or not this jeopardises the correct functioning of democracy itself.
Open Secrets and techniques, which tracks US political funding and donations, says personal finance amounting to US$1.45 billion went to Trump and the Republican Celebration for final 12 months’s elections, with practically US$2 billion going to Kamala Harris and the Democrats. Musk was among the largest donors (at over US$290 million, in accordance with the Federal Election Fee) however there have been a lot extra super-rich Individuals who joined the fray – 150 of the world’s wealthiest households contributed an estimated US$2 billion.
Commentators galore are involved that authorities coverage (not simply within the US, however in different democracies) is being disproportionately formed by the rich, and that rising wealth inequality has made this a direct menace to democratic establishments. They appear not solely at Musk (who in fact has no formal government position) however on the billionaires and multimillionaires filling so lots of Trump’s cupboard positions.
A UK group known as Patriotic Millionaires polled greater than 2,900 millionaires throughout G20 nations in November and December final 12 months, and located that two-thirds mentioned the super-rich “interfered inappropriately” within the US elections and in shaping public opinion. And these are all millionaires themselves.
