OfJacob Silverman

Photos: YouTube screenshots

Donald Trump may be the president-elect, but he got there by elevating Elon Musk to practically running mate. The richest man in the world – who is he? tens of billions of dollars richer since Trump’s victory — has quickly eclipsed Vice President-elect JD Vance in the MAGA hierarchy. During the campaign, Musk fused the roles of mega-donor, surrogate, campaign strategist, celebrity endorser and right-wing social media influencer to a degree that made the Republican ticket as much about Musk and ambition its reactionary, technological-futuristic. as it was about Trump and his doomed portrait of a rotten America overrun by migrants and crime.

Empowered but troubled, the oldest man to be elected president will likely assume a familiar and limited set of duties once he returns to the White House: signing the right-wing legislationgiving demagogic speeches, shit, playing golf and enjoying a lot of “executive time”. That will leave Musk with an important role, if he can use it. Just as the reckless President George W. Bush allowed his imperious Vice President Dick Cheney to assume some presidential duties, Trump can be expected to delegate authority to his appointees and the multitude of corporate executives who support him, forming an administration that combines corporate power and political power. favorable trading in a way we probably haven’t seen before.

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It is an arrangement that is only possible under the presidency of the most transactional man in politics. And no one stands to gain more than Elon Musk, who we might like to call the shadow president. Until he and Trump turn on each other — it happened before – Musk will have the ability to mold the US government to his whim, and he and his tech allies will benefit enormously.

Agenda of the Shadow President

We’re already starting to see what a shadow Musk presidency might look like. The day after the election, Musk attended a phone call with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It was an immediate promotion for Musk: from major donor to statesman. Musk is a Defense Department contractor with a top-secret security clearance, and the Ukrainian military relies on his Starlink satellite Internet service. But Musk has Speakers limit Ukraine’s ability to use Starlink in attacks on Russian forces; expressed discomfort at being involved in the war in Ukraine; and according to reports he speaks regularly with Russian President Vladimir Putin (whose military, by the way, has acquired numerous Starlink terminals). It’s an extraordinary set of entanglements for a private citizen to bring to a diplomatic phone call about a sensitive foreign policy issue.

But that was just the first day. …