Elon Musk’s dramatic and stormy arrival on the political stage in the past few months has shaken up and challenged the American political landscape at the highest levels. It is not only his affiliation and affection for President-elect Donald Trump but his very presence in the middle of an entire array of issues that have emerged even before Trump has been sworn in. Musk’s role is unlike Steve Bannon who was Trump’s guru in 2016/17 or Stephen Miller who was the Trump sycophant in the first Trump White House. Musk’s landing is totally about his presumed personal affection, self-interest, money, and personal thirst for power.
Recognizing that he is constitutionally barred from ever being elected president himself, given his foreign birth, Musk has inserted himself, in a Rasputin-like manner, into the Trump entourage. He has become the key political player in the new Trump circle. He will remain as long as Donald Trump does not feel that Musk is usurping Trump’s insistence that Trump personally be the dominant figure on the national and global stage.
Musk’s determination to set America’s priorities has been made easier because of his reported contribution of at least $277 million to Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign. This presumed entry card entitled him to proceed to offer guidance and direction to the President-elect. Given the affection that Trump has always bestowed on untrained and non-professional advisers, Musk fits in to Trump’s mode of decision-making. The creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as an extra-governmental advisory council, fits perfectly into the modus operandi for both Trump and Musk.
As leader of the DOGE, Elon Musk can offer recommendations and guidance to Trump with the same disregard and distaste for rules, laws, and norms of governing as Trump seeks for himself. Like the President-elect, Musk does not want to be told what he can do and will stretch and push the political envelope as far as he is able. As Musk is operating under no legal or budgetary constraints, it already is clear that he is prepared to push Trump and thereby the country in directions which may well be antithetical and dangerous for U.S. interests; not only economically, but nationally and globally.
Musk and DOGE have no budget, and no constraints. Musk is accountable to no one; perhaps not even to Donald Trump. At the same time Trump has his ego consistently being massaged by the richest person in the world.
Musk’s forays into personnel, budgetary, and world-wide affairs are only the most recent examples of Musk seeking to inveigle himself into processes and systems in which he never has operated. Like Trump, Elon Musk does not believe he must answer to anyone or be beholden to anyone. Thus, if Musk is suggesting to the President-elect not to capitulate to or withdraw any more of his desired cabinet appointees, Trump cherishes the encouragement from Musk. Such a move becomes acceptable to Trump, even if it undermines or alienates his party, his ability to govern, and the public’s good will.
Similarly, challenging at the eleventh hour the terms of a budget deal negotiated with the agreement of Trump by Speaker Mike Johnson, and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, creates ill will among congressional Republicans. The House and Senate GOP will need to be able to legislate at least for the next two years with confidence that their bi-partisan negotiations as well as agreements among their own Members will not be overturned. For Musk and Trump, power means the ability and the right to change their minds and expect their legions to line up regardless.
It is perhaps on the global scene that Elon Musk could mislead the President and threaten the nation. Musk’s recently demonstrated affection for Germany’s extreme right-wing, neo-fascist Alterative for Germany (AfD) Party is alarming to not only Germany’s centrist and left-wing, but to many of America’s European allies as well. Coupled with Musk’s meeting last week in Florida with British anti-immigrant, right-wing opposition figure Nigel Farage—whom Trump had already befriended—there ought to be a genuine concern that Musk’s global perceptions will intensify Trump’s right-wing preferences.
Musk’s recent behavior and actions suggest that for however long his affectionate relationship with Trump will last, the soon to be president is likely to adopt and follow much of Musk’s thinking. As long as Musk continues to be seen as driving the bus, many of the potential erratic and unpredictable considerations of Donald Trump could be re-enforced and expanded.
It will be very curious to see for how long the Republican Party will remain wedded to this team, before there will be a major rupture. This could actually begin when the House returns in January and proceeds to select its Speaker.
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