South African-born billionaire Elon Musk has had a meteoric rise in his political career, from being a liberal darling who advocated for green energy through his electric vehicle company, Tesla, to despising everything 'woke' and joining the Make America Great Again (MAGA) train, his ascension to the highest political office in the world has been swift.
Musk and politics
Musk's historic come-up is closely linked to his affinity with Trump. Professor John Stremlau, an expert in international relations, believes Musk and Trump have a symbiotic connection since they share similar beliefs.
"These values are white nationalist values - that's the core of it. I've never seen the likes of Elon Musk given it such authority by a sitting president. It's unprecedented, and the assumption is that Musk can wipe his hands and just walk off into the sunset, not pay any consequence, because he's protected by the President, but he's not subject to congressional review or approval," said Stremlau.
In an unprecedented move, on February 11, Musk gave a media briefing in the Oval Office with Trump. During this session, Musk, who is part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), outlined his plans to reduce federal spending and streamline government processes.
He described federal employees as being unelected and working in an unconstitutional branch of government while having enormous authority. This ironic statement was not passed over by pundits who questioned why he was there in the first place.
While not holding any office in Donald Trump's office, Musk's power and influence are palpable and seemingly all-encompassing. Democratic Party and senator, Elizabeth Warren is one of the Space X owner's biggest detractors.
"No one elected Elon Musk. As Donald Trump allows Musk to access people's personal information and shut down government funding, Republicans in Washington will also own the consequences. We must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm," Warren posted on X over alleged DOGE overreach.
However, Musk's political ambitions cannot be untethered from his Silicon Valley roots.
At Trump's inauguration, three of the world's richest individuals including Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg cast a big shadow over Washington and may have signaled a new age in global socioeconomic politics and economics.
Prominent Republican Steve Bannon told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that Musk should come back to his birthplace: "He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I'm not prepared to tolerate it anymore.
"Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?"
Bannon went on to accuse Musk of attempting to establish technofeudalism on a global scale.
Economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis posited that capitalism is dead and technofeudalism has taken the reigns. According to Varoufakis, in techno-feudalism, one's preferences are no longer their own; instead, they are generated by machine networks, often known as the cloud.
Technofeudalism is based on the premise that the cloud has created a feedback loop that diminishes human agency. Users of the internet essentially teach the algorithm to identify what they like, and the algorithm trains people to like what it offers.
Under this premise, the common person serves the 'tech bro' giants as a serf did under feudalism.
"Remarkably, as with all historic transformations, no one planned it. No capitalist imagined becoming a cloudalist. No central bankers aimed at funding the cloudalists. No politicians saw the damage cloud capital would inflict upon democratic politics.
"In the same way that capitalism came about against the will of everyone, including the kings and bishops as well as the peasants, the rise of the cloudalists happened out of sight and behind the back of the vast majority, including the most powerful of historical agent," Varoufakis wrote in Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism.
The author likened Musk to Thomas Edison who infamously electrocuted an elephant in a sinister financial ploy to discredit a rival.
Another powerful billionaire, Zuckerberg, also kissed the ring and bowed to Trump. He dived into right-wing politics by loosening policies on his platforms and advocating for free speech, a page straight out of Musk's book. "It is time to get back to our roots on Facebook and Instagram. I started building social media to give people a voice...Government and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.
"A lot of this is clearly political...The recent (US) elections feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising free speech," said Zuckerberg. Jeff Bezos also joined the gravy train. Bezos' Amazon AMZN.O reportedly donated towards the Trump's inauguration.
Furthermore, in early January, Amazon Prime Video bought the rights to a documentary and a three-part docuseries about Melania Trump, the former and future first lady.
IOL Politics