This Was The Year Elon Musk Took Politics

“I think they realized that what the big tech companies have been worrying about for years, which is actually how to change or organize speech at this crazy level, is not a problem,” says Magalhaes. “That’s an opportunity for him.”

Since the election, Musk has not disappeared into the shadows, content with behind-the-scenes meetings and hidden influence. Instead, they connected by phone foreign leadersto be burdened on the selection of personnel for the new managementand threatens to use America PAC to spend money against lawmakers who disagree with Trump’s (and his) agenda..

In November, Trump announced that Musk would appoint a new federal advisory committee called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, as memecoin)which is responsible for cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget. (Removing all federal funds, including defense, they would not achieve this goalThe committee does not exist, but Musk has used his presence on X and this new government close, if irrational, should dictate policy. Perhaps not by accident, on paper, its economic comparison it is said to have increased by about $170 billion after the election.

“He has put (the owner of X) in a government where his ability to influence the ideas that affect his business is high. And this can provide great economic benefits,” said Phil Napoli, a professor of public policy at Duke University. “I think that would be the most dangerous thing that could happen, if more platforms took the cue from Musk.”

Early returns suggest other technology leaders may follow suit. Mark Zuckerberg’s meta is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to be went to Mar-a-Lago kiss the ring. Meta officials say Zuckerberg wants it participate “actively” by helping shape the Trump administration’s technology policies.

“Every time there is a new government, big capitalism, big money, they try to put themselves in a position to benefit from it. And I think that is what they are doing,” says Magalhaes. And Musk’s use of X for political purposes could lead the Trump administration to expect similar behavior from other companies, he says. “I think in that sense it’s a process.”

Musk’s ambitions are not limited to the US. Since the election he has he went to the UK to meet with right-wing politicians there and he wrote about his support for the right-wing German party, Alternative for Germany. Earlier this year he tried to challenge the court order in Brazil which required X to remove some foreign accounts that the court said were interfering with the country’s elections.

All this means that Musk’s political dominance is not a matter of his closeness to Trump. Even if the two titanic egos have the predicted explosion, Musk’s influence will be felt in the new settlement between Silicon Valley and the MAGA community, and in whatever parts of the world he chooses to focus on.

In other words, it’s back to your familiar surroundings. Even before buying Twitter in 2022, Musk was a heavy user, one of the most followed people on the platform. His Tweets can affect the prices of his other companies, especially Teslaand his beloved memecoin, Dogecoin. Trump, similarly, was a Twitter user before he became president, and during his first term in office He was famous for making plans and tweets. Now it seems that the next four years, perhaps, will see more and more authority and social media post – now it’s another shitposter.