Elon Musk’s Unfettered Influence On the Trump Administration Isn’t Just Undemocratic — It’s Really Freaking Weird
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Elon Musk is a weirdo. There’s the stuff on the surface, from his controversial salute or bizarre behavior standing behind Trump during the inauguration that went viral on social media.
Then there’s the insidious behavior that lies beneath — that this social media-obsessed troll, who is entirely unrepentant and arguably anti-democratic, has been granted an outsized role in the Trump administration that means he is the most powerful civilian in the world. What is being overlooked amid the discussions of his general goofiness is his ridiculously outsized influence on, and parasitic relationships with President Donald Trump.
On paper, Musk is a brilliant and accomplished individual. He seems to consider himself a recent version of Nietzsche’s Übermensch, following his will to power in a way that’s made him not just the wealthiest man in the world but also the most influential, at least for those still reliant on the social media platform he purchased and refashioned in his own pro-Trump and trollish image. Yes, he put his metaphorically enormous thumb on the scales of the 2024 election in a far more egregious manner than “Big Tech” did in 2020, though that weirdly gets underreported.
Musk’s self-serving omnipresence in the Trump administration, which runs the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), gets much attention, as it should. Much of the attention is presented in good faith by political media and, I sense, is reasonably well accepted by many news consumers not entirely blinded by partisan politics.
Reducing government reach and cutting costs makes sense under any administration. I’m old enough to remember when Vice President Al Gore was charged with a similar mission under President Bill Clinton, which, pre-Bush tax cuts, led to the last time the US government had a budget surplus, but I digress.
Musk insisted on having an office in the West Wing, but it turns out that his team is in the Ellsworth building nearby. As we saw during the government shutdown debate, he has no compunction to refrain from using his bully pulpit to get whatever he wants. And as the wealthiest man in the world who seems so addicted to Twitter, he bought it and renamed it X? The dude appears to be losing his mind.
And no, that is not a medical diagnosis, it’s a hyperbolic explanation used as a signal for those of you that work in political media to start covering just how unbelievably bizarre Musk’s behavior is, as well as his enormous influence on Trump. He also expressed his abject willingness to prioritize his petty grievances above whatever objectives the Trump administration has on its agenda.
We saw this shortly after the Stargate AI infrastructure announcement. Musk immediately undermined the details, insisting that Softbank did not have to close to the money to pony up whatever its share of the $500 billion bill that had just been pledged. When asked about it, Trump shrugged and said that Musk hates one of the investors (OpenAI CEO Sam Altman) in a tone of respect and forgiveness, saying there are people he also hates.
What? How is this an acceptable form of government in any way? Musk is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, has amassed more wealth than any person in history (save perhaps Vladimir Putin), and appears to have used his influence to create government programs from which his bottom line will benefit. Trump’s inaugural promise to send humans to Mars is likely a huge boon for SpaceX.
When he’s not playing videogames or mugging for cameras at Trump events, Musk spends most of his time trolling foes on X — often amplifying baseless to insane conspiracy theories. It seems his favorite thing to do is “own the libs.” No wonder he’s held in such high standing within Trump’s inner circle.
During a recent high school reunion I attended in September, I inquired about Musk’s weirdness to an old classmate of mine who knows Musk well from his early days in Silicon Valley and mutual investment partnerships. My friend just laughed and said Musk finds all of this entertaining. He’s “just fucking with people,” and he doesn’t care.
Sure, I guess he’s earned that luxury as the wealthiest dude ever and owner of arguably the most influential social media platform in political media. But, he’s now got more than Trump’s ear — you could easily argue he’s got Trump by the balls. And he’s in this position not because he was elected, but rather he’s widely wealthy and influential. What started as a symbiotic relationship that benefited both now looks far more one-sided and not in a way that should please the MAGA base.
Reports surfaced recently that there is growing mistrust and animus towards Musk brewing in the Trump camp, and it’s easy to see why. Musk is unfuckwithable. He doesn’t need Trump’s promotion to build his enormous largesse. He cannot be intimidated by threats of being primaried. Trump’s only realistic leverage is limiting Musk’s DOGE role in his administration. If Trump wanted to play hardball and threaten the South African-born mogul with something harsher, Musk could easily turn his X algorithm against him. Again, Trump’s scrotum seems to be firmly in Musk’s grasp.
None of this is news. It’s all out there for anyone to see all day, every day. What’s strange to me is that hardly anyone — apart from Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway — seems to be sounding the alarm about how bizarre and potentially dangerous this dynamic is. It’s almost like the fabled Emperor walking around his kingdom with no clothes would largely get reported as new clothes and not, you know, a nude and delusional king.
Musk is a weirdo. That’s fine. But his vice-like grip on Trump’s balls? That should be a massive concern for Americans across the partisan spectrum.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
