I don’t wish to sound too paternalistic, however one factor needs to be mentioned: poor Elon Musk performed a recreation he doesn’t perceive. “This is what victory feels like,” he shouted with overexcitement at Mr. Trump’s inauguration occasion (it’s price watching the one-minute video). He had contributed greater than $250 million to the Trump 2024 marketing campaign. He carelessly promised that he would lower $2 trillion, or one-third, from federal authorities expenditures, earlier than he lower his reducing promise to $1 trillion, and he lastly achieved lower than 20% of this final objective. His conspiracy theorizing didn’t assist him, because it by no means does.
The acrimonious crash of the Trump-Musk relationship was predictable. (See “The Trump-Musk Relationship Ruptures in Real Time,” Wall Road Journal, June 4, 2025; and “The Trump-Musk ‘War of the Roses,’” June 5, 2025.) Neither of the 2 males is used to being bullied round. It’s not the primary time that Trump has turned towards a former affiliate. I think that Mr. Musk, like Mr. Trump, requires private loyalty and fealty of the medieval type, however neither can fathom decentralized energy. They each assume by way of energy, not by way of liberty. And each are extra emotional than rational.
Musk is actually an excellent visionary and entrepreneur, however he doesn’t thoughts getting or requesting help from governments. As we have now seen within the final election, he’s additionally a daring political entrepreneur, though his unhealthy guess on Trump might hang-out him for a very long time.
Though he did oppose the deficit-happy “Big Beautiful Bill” and (much less overtly) the commerce warfare, Musk is actually not a libertarian or classical liberal. The classical liberal custom entertains an financial and philosophical concept of politics that excludes the Princess-Mathilde view—that the criterion of a great authorities is that it serves my speedy curiosity at the price of others. At finest, Musk’s political ideology seems like naïve democratism based mostly on a “will of the people” that even legal professionals dare not oppose. He most likely has by no means learn any structured libertarian argument.
A few of us might have hoped that Musk would finally uncover the liberal very best of liberty. If any hope stays, it’s going to probably be annoyed. At any fee, few folks of their fifties (even of their thirties, John Maynard Keynes believed) are capable of severely take into account new concepts. I doubt he’ll take the pink capsule. (See my put up “Elon Musk, Edward Luce, and Libertarianism,” June 5, 2023.)
The stronger the embrace of Leviathan, the extra politics turns into what Anthony de Jasay described: a recreation of coercively harming some folks with the intention to favor helpful clientèles. Mr. Musk thought he had positioned himself on the fitting facet of the divide; he might now, poor man, have fallen on the opposite facet. Trump wrote on his social media:
The simplest means to economize in our Funds, Billions and Billions of {Dollars}, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.
Musk’s billions will assist him survive on the fallacious facet of the adversary and discriminatory state, if solely Leviathan doesn’t severely get on his case. As Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s secret police chief, reportedly mentioned, “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.” In response to the Wall Road Journal, Steve Bannon “suggested that Musk’s immigration status be investigated.” In response to The Economist, Bannon needs him to be stripped of American citizenship. Different threats have been voiced. Musk might find yourself wishing there are judges to dam the “will of the people” towards him.
If one chickens out between the king and the courtier, it’s going to almost actually be the latter. Within the meantime, some chaotic surprises and reversals will not be unattainable. As Trump additionally has a lot to lose, it’s attainable that the 2 warriors will bury the warfare hatchet, at the least publicly or for a time. As William Riker famous, in democratic decisions insufficiently constrained by establishments, “anything can happen.”
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On this fictional future, Elon Musk would want a companion
