{"id":18253,"date":"2024-11-22T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18253"},"modified":"2024-11-22T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:38:08","slug":"elon-musk-has-cozied-into-trumps-white-house-how-long-will-this-bromance-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18253","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk has cozied into Trump\u2019s White House. How long will this bromance last?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span>t\u2019s deja vu all over again, again. In the wake of Donald Trump\u2019s decisive re-election, his transition team has moved to pack his cabinet and adviser positions with figures straight out of the Star Wars<\/a> cantina \u2013 some of the most dangerous and bizarre sideshows from every corner of his chaotic galaxy.<\/p>\n

In the Trump Cinematic Universe, loyalty usurps qualification. That\u2019s why Pete Hegseth<\/a>, a Fox News host who wants to eliminate \u201cwoke\u201d officials from the military, got tapped to oversee our national defense. And it\u2019s why Matt Gaetz<\/a> was asked to helm the very Department of Justice that was investigating him for alleged sex trafficking, before his abrupt withdrawal from consideration.<\/p>\n

But perhaps no figure better captures the cartoonish nature of Trump\u2019s staffing philosophy than Elon Musk, the literal richest man on Earth<\/a>, who has somehow grabbed the wheel of a presidential transition that\u2019s navigating the road ahead about as well as one of his Teslas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From offering his two cents<\/a> on presidential appointments, to joining calls with the Ukrainian president<\/a>, to adjudicating the race for Senate majority leader via an X poll<\/a>, the man who broke Twitter now has his sights set on breaking the federal government. He\u2019s poised to hack the budget, ramrod in his half-baked policy musings and push through deregulation that will inevitably benefit his fleet of companies.<\/p>\n

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Like any great romcom, Musk and Trump got off to a rocky start. Two years ago, before he donned a \u201cdark gothic Maga\u201d cap<\/a> himself, Musk was urging Trump to \u201chang up his hat<\/a>\u201d, and Trump was calling Musk too chicken to buy Twitter. But then Musk did buy Twitter, and began diligently turning it into a bastion<\/a> of rightwing misinformation called X.<\/p>\n

The arc of this entanglement reached its inevitable conclusion when Musk rewired the platform\u2019s algorithm<\/a> to promote his own conspiracies about immigrants<\/a> and election interference<\/a>, while also giving free advertisement to Trump to the tune of 2bn views<\/a>. Though Trump was already the first major party nominee to own a social media platform<\/a> in Truth Social, he now essentially leases a second one for free.<\/p>\n

While Trump received support from Musk gratis, his voters received million-dollar checks. For all Musk\u2019s handwringing<\/a> about \u201cballot harvesting\u201d, he engaged in a brazen election interference scheme when he more or less paid citizens<\/a> to vote for Trump.<\/p>\n

Musks\u2019s so-called sweepstakes, which a Pennsylvania court waved through<\/a>, culminates big money\u2019s political playbook. Billionaires no longer need to launder their bribes through Super Pacs with vaguely patriotic names. They can avoid that rigmarole, cut out the middleman and offer direct financial incentives for supporting whichever candidate they deem most favorable to their business interests.<\/p>\n

And now that Musk\u2019s doubtfully legal efforts have paid off in the election of the country\u2019s first president<\/a> with a felony conviction, the true singularity can begin \u2013 not the merging of humans with AI supposedly portended<\/a> by Neuralink, but of Musk\u2019s agenda with Trump\u2019s. There\u2019s no shortage of \u201ccatastrophic conflicts of interest<\/a>\u201d, to quote former chief of government ethics Walter Shaub. Sure enough, Musk\u2019s corporate empire has received $15bn in public contracts<\/a>, while facing 20 federal investigations. But it would be no more than coincidence should that first number skyrocket and the second number plummet over the next four years.<\/p>\n