On Monday, Jan. 20, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. The number of words written about Trump could drown the country in paper, not to mention the pieces still to come over the next four years. But there can be no talk of Trump without mentioning Elon Musk in the same breath. In just a few short months from Election Day to the present moment, Musk has solidified himself as Trump’s right-hand man, becoming a massively influential player in the Republican Party. He poses a significant danger to American politics, having carved out a threatening mantle of power both entwined with and outside of government.
In outgoing President Biden’s farewell address on Jan. 15, he warned of an oligarchy taking shape in America that “threatens our entire democracy.” There is no better representation for this phenomenon than Elon Musk. Among this cadre of absurdly rich people, which includes figures such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon leader Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Musk is the wealthiest. He is at the very top of the one percent, owning several companies such as X (formerly Twitter), Tesla and SpaceX. But money is not what makes him stand out. While the others may hope to foster profitable and influential ties with Trump’s government, Musk has gone all in on one strategy to increase his power: get as close to Trump as possible, with no expenses spared.
In the 2024 campaign, Musk donated 277 million dollars to help Trump and other Republican candidates win their elections, easily making him the largest donor to either political party. But he wasn’t content to simply sit on the sidelines like other major donors, instead campaigning with Trump and even calling himself “Dark MAGA.”. In doing so, Musk cemented a rapid hard-right turn from the previous election, when he voted for Biden, although he has always had unpredictable, clouded, and often contradictory politics. The reason for these contributions, however, could not be more clear: Musk aimed to buy his way to favor with Trump, and he soon got what he wished. In the aftermath of Trump’s victory, the president-elect put Musk as the co-head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—and yes, it was named after the famous dog meme. This project was originally tasked with cutting two trillion dollars in waste from the federal government by 2026, although that goal has already been revised to one trillion. This effort could result in harmful layoffs and massive cuts to federal programs. Since the ‘department’ is ostensibly an advisory organization in the government and its leader is not subject to a cabinet hearing, Musk will likely not have to answer for the many conflicts of interest his company portfolio would present; for instance, SpaceX has been awarded 15.4 billion dollars in government contracts over the last decade. It was reported that Musk will receive an office in the West Wing of the White House, therefore being extraordinarily close to Trump’s ear for a private citizen. The impact of DOGE may be far-reaching or it may sputter out, but either way Musk gets what he wants.
The establishment of DOGE was bad enough, but Musk quickly flexed his newfound political muscle. In December, legislators had prepared a bipartisan bill to renew government spending and avoid a shutdown, which appeared likely to pass. But Musk unleashed a barrage of posts on his X app disparaging the bill with blatant misinformation, and quickly the bill was dead in the water. Last-minute opposition against legislation is traditional Trump territory, but the new president didn’t even weigh in until the dust had settled. Eventually, lawmakers finally approved a smaller bill more to Musk’s liking. Afterwards, one Republican House member, Tony Gonzales, floated the idea of Musk as a “prime minister” of sorts—a powerful title marking his suddenly inescapable influence in the GOP, and an underscoring of how Musk is interfering with the American political system.
Musk’s ascent didn’t stop there. He later got into a social media slugfest over his support of H-1B visas, which allow foreign tech workers to come and work in the U.S, with diehard MAGA figures such as Steve Bannon. Trump, although previously on record as opposed to those visas, ended up supporting Musk. In doing so, he confirmed Musk’s influence over the current MAGA landscape, rejecting the people that had helped sweep him to office before.
Over the past few days, Musk has become embroiled in an outcry over his maybe-accidental, maybe-not gesture of a Nazi salute, lighting social media and the news on fire. If nothing else, the whirlwind has proved that Musk is everywhere and, like Trump, has a unique ability to provoke controversy while claiming innocence to his devoted followers –213 million on X, to be exact. The firestorm also distracted from more substantial developments in Musk’s influence, both past and present. The Nazi salute, intentional or not, overshadowed Musk’s very real commitment to the AfD, a far right and virulently anti-immigration German political party, which he supported in an opinion piece back in December. Moving forward to inauguration day, Musk was promised an initiative to send humans to Mars, one of his longtime and treasured pet projects. Hours later, it was revealed that Musk’s co-leader of DOGE, fellow tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy, was on the outs, leaving Musk as the sole driver of the program’s initiatives. The path has been cleared for Musk to have free rein and a massive reach in pursuing his goals, whether they be pushing into space, fighting for drastic budget cuts, or advancing the ideology of the far-right.
On the surface, the rise of Musk signals a return to the corrupt politics of the Gilded Age in America, when wealthy robber barons exercised lucrative influence over the government. It also demonstrates the unstable power of one man with the ability to spread a wealth of falsehoods in service of his wide-ranging aims. In a way, Musk was correct when he proclaimed himself as Dark MAGA: another form of Trump, hidden in shadow, the new president’s power behind the throne.