THE IMPROBABLE RISE OF MAGA-MUSK

IS ELON MUSK A REACTIONARY WITHA DEFECTIVE BULLSHIT METER OR THE BEST PART OF THE SECOND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION?

- BRIAN DOHERTY

IT WAS THE most indelible image of the 2024 presidential campaign: Donald Trump on a stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, right fist raised in defiance over a scrum of Secret Service agents, blood streaming from a bullet wound to the ear, shouting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

One of the millions of people moved by that moment was the world’s richest man, the industrialist and futurist Elon Musk. Musk—America’s most famous immigrant—runs, among other companies, Tesla, which sells the majority of electric cars in the U.S.; SpaceX, developer of the first-ever reusable booster rocket and also the only reliable transport for astronauts to and from the International Space Station; and X (formerly known as Twitter), one of the globe’s most-discussed and influential social media platforms.

In the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, Musk publicized what until then had been a more of a private affair: his enthusiastic support for a return to the White House of a man of whom he had previously been frequently intensely critical.

Thus the stage was set for a second indelible campaign image, one that may prove more telling about the practical import of the 2024 election. In October, Trump was back in Butler at the scene of the crime, paying respects to the slain rally attendee Corey Comperatore and urging his supporters to fight-fight-fight until Election Day.

Behind him, airborne, giddy, and goofy, bounced the world's most successful civilian, reducing himself to a dignity-free cheerleader for a politician he once dismissed as a "con man." It was the dance that launched a thousand derisive memes, but it also arguably purchased key White House access for an influential figure with a gigantic megaphone, who in his public life has nurtured, acted upon, and celebrated many contrarian political ideas, some of them libertarian.