“I believe he realized that what Large Tech corporations spent many years involved about, which is basically the way to average or the way to set up speech on this loopy scale, is that is not an issue,” says Magalhaes. “That is a possibility for him.”
For the reason that election, Musk has not pale into the shadows, content material with backroom conferences and covert affect. As an alternative, he has joined calls with foreign leaders, weighed in on staffing picks for the new administration, and threatened to make use of the America PAC to fund primary challenges against lawmakers who don’t support Trump’s (and his) agenda.
In November, Trump introduced that Musk would co-lead a brand new federal advisory committee known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, like the memecoin), chargeable for chopping $2 trillion from the federal price range. (Eliminating all discretionary federal spending, together with on protection, would not achieve this aim.) The committee doesn’t but exist, however already Musk has used his presence on X and this new government-adjacent, if nebulous, place to dictate coverage. Maybe not coincidentally, on paper, his estimated wealth reportedly elevated by about $170 billion following the election.
“He is parlayed [his ownership of X] right into a governmental place the place his capacity to affect coverage that impacts all of his enterprise pursuits is simply super. And that would pay big monetary dividends,” says Phil Napoli, a professor of public coverage at Duke College. “I believe that might be the scariest factor that would occur, is that if a variety of these platforms take that sign from Musk.”
The early returns recommend that different tech leaders are more likely to observe swimsuit. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have visited Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. Meta officers say Zuckerberg desires to take an “active role” in serving to form the Trump administration’s tech insurance policies.
“Each time there is a new authorities, massive capitalism, massive cash, tries to place themselves ready to learn from it. And I believe that is what they’re doing,” says Magalhaes. And Musk’s use of X for explicitly political functions may induce the Trump administration to anticipate related behaviors from different corporations, he says. “I believe in that sense it’s a blueprint.”
Musk’s ambitions are clearly not restricted to the US. For the reason that election, he has visited the UK to meet with far-right politicians there, and posted about his support for the far-right Germany party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). Earlier this 12 months, he attempted to defy a court order in Brazil that required X to take away sure far-right accounts that the courtroom mentioned have been undermining the integrity of the nation’s elections.
All of because of this Musk’s management over politics isn’t only a matter of his closeness to Trump. Even ought to the 2 titanic egos have a much-predicted blow-up, Musk’s affect might be felt within the new coziness between Silicon Valley and the MAGA motion, and in no matter components of the world on which he chooses to solid a watch.
In a approach, it’s a return to acquainted floor. Even earlier than shopping for Twitter in 2022, Musk was an excellent consumer, one of many platform’s most adopted folks. His Tweets may have an effect on inventory costs for his different corporations, particularly Tesla, and his favored memecoin, Dogecoin. Trump, equally, was an energetic Twitter consumer earlier than changing into president, and through his first presidency, he was notorious for making policy by tweet. It now seems that the subsequent 4 years, at the least, may see extra governance by social media put up—now simply by a unique shitposter.
