Trump and Musk’s talk of a cabinet job is all hot air, but weshouldn’t ignore it
Department of Research, Strategic Studies and International Relations 22-08-2024
By Brian Merchant – The Guardian
What if Elon Muskwent to Washington to serve in Donald Trump’s White House? There have been worsepitches for a comedy sketch, I suppose. Veep’s Armando Iannucci could probably do something withit. Sadly, the notion is all too real. Sort of.
A Reuters reporter recently asked Trump whether he’dconsider appointing Musk to his cabinet. “He’s a very smart guy,” Trumpresponded.
“I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He’s a brilliantguy.” Musk replied with an AI-generated rendering of him self alongside a decade-old crypto meme and tweeted, “I am willing to serve.”
It’s not the first time the idea has come up – Trump floated the possibility in May – but itis the first time that Musk has responded in the affirmative, winkingly or other wise.
The exchange is the culmination of an escalating series of displays of aw kwardamity and mutual admiration between the two, who were on icyterms as recently as thisspring.
The two are, after all, cut from remarkably similarcloth. Each demands attention the way a flamed eman dsoxygen: incessantly, and atanycost.
We can all but count out the idea of Musk becoming an actual cabinet member, or taking on any role that woul drequire him to officially step away from his job as CEO at a half-dozen companies (Tesla, SpaceX, X, Neuralink, the Boring Company and xAI, as of last counting). More than anyother founder, Musk is his companies, and they are him.
Investors are not backing an auto manufacturer. They are backing Tesla, the revolutionary EV company with self-driving features piloted by the richest and second-most omnipresent man on the planet.
Musk knows as well as anyone that if hestep peda way, his companies’ stock values woul dplummet, his fortune along side them.
As funny as itis to imagine Musk, secretary of energy, fumbling his way through a press conference about natural gasprices, it’s not going to happen.
That we must even consider taking such a thing seriously is a testament to just how powerfully both men have distorted the nature of our heavily mediated reality through trolling and sheer force of ego. And, unfortunately, I think we should takeit seriously! Not because it is at all likely to happen but becaus eit’s worth examining what the entreaty it self reveals about Trump and Musk’s relationship and the relinquishing of a once pivotal platform – X, formerly Twitter – to forces preoccupied with conspiracy and propaganda a at this precarious moment.
It’s hard to remember now, but Musk long proclaimed himself a moderate in politics. He didn’t much wadein to the fray, save to accept the tax credits handed to his companies by Obama’s stimulus bill, and lob the occasion al bromide.
Why would he? Through 2015, his companies enjoyed nearly $5bn in subsidies sent his way by Democratic policies, and by running a standard-bearing electric car company, he was beloved by liberals.
Sin cethen, Musk has been on a right ward drift – until hebought Twitter in 2022, turned it in to X, and that drift became a lurch.
Perhaps criticism over the treatment of workersat the flag ship Tesla plant or a growing obsession with identity politics spurred him on.
He’s taken to boosting rightwing content, sharing transphobicmemes, promoting baseless conspiracy theories about Democrats, complaining about immigration, and stoking racial division in the UK. By the time Trump survived an assassination attempt in July, Musk was well primed – he immediately endorsed the former president, and has been all-in eversince.
Trump made his long awaited return to the social network following Musk’s endorsement. So far, he’s posted campaignads and an AI-generated image of Kamala Harris as a communist leader.
Ugly but typical stuff. Musk hosted Trump on Spaces, a lives tream feature of X, where, after a half an hour of technical difficulties, they set about rambling for two hours, talking pasteach other about immigration, Harris and nuclear bombings.
The two have done a dance of public online friendship – posting AI-generated images of each other, exchanging laudatory remarks in the press, and now, musing about Musk in a Trump White House. The rendering Musk posted on Tuesday depicted him at a podium labeled Department of Governmental Efficiency, or Doge, a reference to the half-jokecry ptocur rencyth at Musk has foundendless lyamusing for years, Dogecoin. He made it a weak punchline on SNL.
Where once Musk may have claimed impropriety, and arguedthat X was a centrist platform free of political bent, nowthat’s all out the window.
X has openly become a place where right wingmemes, projects and baseless conspiracy theories are amplified directly by it sowner and most-followed user (195 million as of writing).
It is what much of the online right has saidit has always wanted: a social network that caters to its policy and cultural preferences and is not censored by thosemed dling liberals.
The social network is a shadow of its former self; hemor rhaging ad vertisers and credibility, thoughit has heldits place as the center of American political news.
Trump remains one of the world’s most noxious content creators, notorious for egging on the January 6 riots in tweets.
That earned him at hree-year exile to the obscure partisan wilds of Truth Social. Whath appens when the owner of his prefer red platformis an ally and a fellow election conspiracy theorist – and instead of turning off the tap, can jack up the heat? Mis information experts are bracing themselves.
Trump and Musk’s alliance is in it sinfancy. If the election takes a darke rturn and Trum pagain refuses to recognize the election results, we can expect that Musk will exacerbateanyensuing chaos.
The truth that undergirds Musk’s deepening bond with Trump is that he doesn’t have to go to Washington to wield influence over our institutions.
With his vast wealth, add led megaphone and Trump’s ear – healready does.
Brian Merchant, The Guardian.
