Opinion | Musk Is The Risk

Just before dawn broke on November 6 over the East Coast, Donald Trump clinched the 270 electoral votes needed to secure a second four-year term as President of the United States. He delivered his victory speech hours before when it became clear that his path to the White House was open and free. 

In the speech that lasted a little over 25 minutes, Trump spoke about unifying America. He thanked several people, including his family, campaign managers and voters. The presumed President-elect also picked out one man for special praise. “Let me tell you, we have a new star. A star is born…Elon,” he said of billionaire businessman Elon Musk. Trump also spent the next four minutes gushing about the spectacle of Musk-owned spacefaring company SpaceX's robots successfully catching a rocket returning from space. “He is a super genius and we have to protect our super geniuses. We don't have many of them,” Trump said. 

Still Sinking In

Musk has reportedly spent $132 million on and actively campaigned for Donald Trump in the elections. Trump has floated the idea of making him in charge of a bureaucratic purge. He wants Musk to head an efficiency commission, whose main job will be to shrink government expenditure, including by potentially firing thousands of career bureaucrats. Trump wants to rid the US government of what he believes is a cabal of federal employees, a deep state that pursues its own agenda. One of his allies, Kash Patel, who is helping in the regime transition, is screening people for potential positions in the Trump administration. Patel, who has written a book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy himself, is said to be angling to be Trump's chief spook. 

Musk responded to Trump's victory in typical style; a picture of himself carrying a kitchen sink with the Oval Office in the background and the line: ‘Let that sink in!' That was a throwback to when he bought Twitter and walked into its headquarters with a sink.  

Biden's Battle With Big Tech

Trump's victory is arguably the most remarkable comeback in US political history. The epochal story's side track is the culmination of a not-so-quiet battle that Big Tech has been waging with Washington during the entire term of Joe Biden. The President's trusted lieutenant, Lina Khan, the chief of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), relentlessly pursued companies such as Facebook, Google and Apple, wielding the antitrust law like an electric whip. Billionaire CEOs sat shuddering before Congressional committees as combative members dragged them over coals. A Republican-led House Judiciary Committee accused Khan of weaponising the agency and pushing a far-left agenda. Khan and FTC occupied significant mind-space in the closing stages of the presidential campaign. She will be fired soon, Musk posted on X a day before the vote.  

The entry of Musk, along with Vice-President JD Vance, signals the deepest incursion of Silicon Valley into US national politics. Vance, who once derisively called Trump “cultural heroin”, was handpicked, groomed and funded to first become Ohio governor and then Trump's running mate by libertarian founder of payment firm PayPal and data analytics company Palantir Technologies, Peter Thiel. 

Reign Of The Unpredictables

To be sure, Trump has no love lost for entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerburg. His pals, Musk and Thiel, checked out of “Woke” California long ago. Trump has reversed his intention to ban Chinese social media app TikTok, a Meta rival, ostensibly after being persuaded by investor Jeffrey Yass, who owns a juicy slice of its parent Bytedance. The libertarian billionaire donated over $46 billion to Republican causes. With the Senate and House also firmly packed with tens of elected legislators backed by billionaire tech entrepreneurs and investors, the power shift is all too evident. 

Although Trump is seen as an uncontrollable wrecking ball, Musk has proven to be even more unpredictable. While countries the world over are bracing for the Trump impact, whether on tariffs, movement of professionals, technology transfer, or military deployment, Musk's influence if he joins the administration is an even bigger unknown. As the richest man on earth with a $286 billion fortune as of election day and business interests all over the world, Musk has close ties with many leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Earlier this year, he abruptly cancelled a visit to India at the last minute only to head to Beijing for confabulations with the Chinese leadership. That sojourn cleared Tesla's path in that country. 

India has refused Tesla and Starlink lower entry barriers and requests for special treatment. Trump is known to intervene with other countries on behalf of American businesses. In his previous term, he had pushed India for concessions to Harley Davidson motorcycles. 

BFFs, But Probably Not For Long

Musk, however, is also a risk to Trump as his business interests may clash with US foreign policy. For instance, Tesla's largest factory is in Shanghai, and another one is in Berlin. Both China and Germany are bracing for higher tariff barriers under Trump. Musk also has been reported to have had secret dealings with Putin, who is said to have lobbied on behalf of his friend Xi to switch off Taiwan's access to Starlink. Musk has also made statements that are contradictory to US interests and publicly stated positions on Taiwan.

Trump's antipathy towards green initiatives and abiding faith in petroleum may not augur well for Tesla's electric cars, but some believe Musk may already be moving away from EVs. His future fortune and power rest on his other businesses, they say. 

Given the contradictions, one as President of the United States and another as the founder of half a dozen futuristic enterprises, it is difficult to see Trump's and Musk's interests remaining aligned for very long. Both are individuals who brook no barrier to their personal agenda, and both are known to wear their opinion on their X handles. 

(Dinesh Narayanan is a Delhi-based journalist and author of 'The RSS And The Making Of The Deep Nation'.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author