Elon Musk to Run ‘Unregulated Entity’ Tasked With Reorganizing Government Under Trump: Report
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Elon Musk is reportedly poised to become “the most powerful civilian ever” in American history, according to a new report by Axios about President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for his second term.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent supporters during the campaign — appearing at rallies with him, buying Twitter and reshaping it into the MAGA-friendly platform X — including amplifying pro-Trump misinformation — and pouring millions of dollars into a pro-Trump PAC. Trump effusively sang Musk’s praises in his victory speech in the early morning hours Wednesday, calling him a “super genius” and “star.”
The report by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen at Axios highlighted Musk’s status as Trump’s “most influential backer” who “now sits at the pinnacle of power in business, government influence and global information (and misinformation) flow.”
Musk’s immense wealth connected to his support for the winning presidential candidate mean that his “power” is now “unmatched,” VandeHei and Allen wrote, because of his “information control” over “the most powerful information platform for America’s ruling party.”
“X makes Fox News seem like a quaint little pamphlet in size, scope and right-wing tilt,” they continued, with “[v]irtually every powerful voice in the Trump media ecosystem congregates on X — where their reality, whether tethered to facts or fiction, are set. X will be the prosecutor, defender, jury and judge of Trump governance.”
And Musk’s influence on the second Trump White House won’t just be from the outside in, the Axios report noted:
Musk is helping staff the top ranks of the incoming White House and will run an unregulated entity to recommend ways to cut and reorganize government. Name another American figure with this kind of political juice.
Musk’s business interests are massively dependent on the U.S. government. Tesla benefits heavily from government policies incentivizing electric vehicles and limiting regulation, and SpaceX has positioned itself to have not only a key role in space travel in partnership with NASA but also what Axios described as a “virtual global monopoly on satellites.” Musk having any sort of official government role “creates conflicts of interest at an epic scale,” reported Axios, “[b]ut it’s hard to see the Trump White House caring, or Musk letting it slow him down. And, when you control a big chunk of the information flow, you get to shape how lots of people view it, anyway.”
