“He addresses what big tech companies have been concerned about for decades, which is essentially how to moderate and organize speech on this extraordinary scale. I think they realized that it wasn’t a problem,” Magalhães said. “It’s an opportunity for him.”
Since the election, Mr. Musk has remained in the shadows, content with closed-door meetings and clandestine influence. Instead, he has participated in telephone conversations with foreign leaders, provided input into the selection of the new administration, and used the US PAC to fund primaries against members of Congress who do not support Trump (and his) policies. Then he threatened me.
In November, President Trump announced that Musk would co-chair a new federal advisory committee called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, something like a meme coin) that would be responsible for cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget. (Eliminating all discretionary federal spending, including defense spending, would not accomplish this goal.) The committee doesn’t exist yet, but Musk has already announced his presence on X, albeit ambiguously. is using this new position adjacent to the government to determine policy. Perhaps not coincidentally, on paper, his estimated wealth reportedly increased by about $170 billion after the election.
“He has an absolutely tremendous ability to use[hisownershipinCompany”It’spossible”saidPhilNapoliapublicpolicyprofessoratDukeUniversity“IthinkthescariestthingthatcouldhappenisifalotoftheseplatformspickupthesignalfromMusk”
The early return suggests other technology leaders are likely to follow suit. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos visited Mar-a-Lago and kissed a ring. Meta officials said Zuckerberg wants to play an “active role” in shaping the Trump administration’s technology policy.
“Every time there’s a new government, big capitalism, big capital, tries to put themselves in a position to benefit from it. I think that’s what they’re doing,” Magalhães said. Musk’s use of X for clearly political purposes could also lead the Trump administration to expect similar behavior from other companies, he said. “In that sense, I think this is a blueprint.”
Mr. Musk’s ambitions are clearly not limited to the United States. Since the election, he has traveled to the UK, met with local far-right politicians and posted about his support for Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany. Earlier this year, he tried to defy a Brazilian court order that required X to remove certain far-right accounts because the court said they were undermining the integrity of Brazil’s elections.
All of this means that Musk’s political dominance is not just about his closeness to Trump. Even if the duo’s huge egos caused the much-anticipated explosion, Musk’s influence is a new coziness between Silicon Valley and the MAGA movement, and the world he chooses to turn to. You can feel it in any area of your throat.
In a way, it’s a return to familiar territory. Even before he acquired Twitter in 2022, Musk was a super user and one of the most followed people on the platform. His tweets could affect the stock prices of his other companies, particularly Tesla and his favorite meme coin, Dogecoin. Trump was similarly an active Twitter user even before he took office, and was notorious for making policy decisions through tweets during his time as president. It seems likely that we will see even more governance through social media posts for at least the next four years. Now it’s by another shitty poster.
