Elon Musk has spent so much time at Mar-a-Lago since the election that Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter, Kia, posted on TikTok a photo of herself with Musk and his 4-year-old son with the caption, “Elon achieving uncle status.”
Even before this last week, the tech billionaire was a featured attraction at Trump rallies, pouring at least $200 million into voter turnout and pledging to award another million a day to random Trump supporters in the closing days of the campaign. Cameras captured the 53-year-old leaping with joy as he shared the stage with the man who would become the President-elect.
“Novus Ord Seclorum,” he wrote on X, which is Latin for New World Order. More than anyone because of Trump’s fascination with wealth and celebrity, Musk has ability to shape that new order.
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Unlikely to join Trump’s government—he has too many conflicts of interest—he suggested Trump create an efficiency commission to trim $2 trillion from the federal budget. He has agreed to lead such a panel, warning voters to brace for hardship.
As Trump puts together his team for a second go at being president, proximity is power—and it’s not his official VP pick JD Vance who’s on the premises and weighing the choices. It’s Musk who’s been on the phone when Trump talks to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the president of Russia. Musk’s Starlink internet satellite service is integral to both war-torn countries.
Meanwhile, Vance is back home in Ohio adjusting to his meteoric rise from Silicon Valley tech investor to vice president in just two years. He said in a clip that aired on Fox News that he and his wife, Usha, lost friends over his alliance with Trump.
His sponsor is Donald Trump Jr., who advocated for Vance’s candidacy, and knows better than most how his father can run roughshod over people. Musk is a naturalized citizen from South Africa and cannot run for president.
Vance is the heir apparent, and like any vice president knows his place and must bide his time. His role is undefined as of now, but his office will likely become the hub of the New Tech Right as it builds political power.
While Vance figures out his job, Musk is a critical player in U.S. national security whether there’s a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars,” Musk told author Walter Isaacson for his 2023 biography of Musk. “It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Musk for a time last year threatened to withdraw Star Link from Ukraine, which he had been supplying free of charge. He then said the U.S. government should pick up the bill before backing off on both demands.
The jockeying exposes the problems when government relies on a mercurial outside funder for national security. Now the outside funder is on the inside, and he brings an outsized intellect that—if he chooses—comprehends the complexity of the world in a way that eludes Trump, a master of instant gratification.
The climate conference COP 29 just getting underway now in in Baku, Azerbaijan lays bare the challenge ahead if Trump pulls out again as expected from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
In 2017, Musk stepped down in protest from two presidential advisory panels, saying, “Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
This time around, Musk is our only hope to salvage some sanity on the issue. He got into the EV business because of his worries about fossil fuels, and Space X because he wanted a back-up planet should efforts to combat climate change fail.
Musk’s latest obsession is population growth which puts him at odds with those who worry more about an overcrowded planet and not enough resources. He thinks smart people should have more babies, and thinks IVF is an efficient way to achieve that goal. Trump proclaimed himself the “father of IVF” at a Fox town hall with Republican women in the battleground state of Georgia.
It’s Musk who is Trump’s real partner, not Vance, who we haven’t heard much from as Trump gets that rarest of opportunities—a do-over presidency. Voters remembered his first term as a time of prosperity and peace. The pandemic never came up during the campaign. It was a national trauma that we collectively forgot and never held Trump accountable for his lies and lack of leadership in confronting what he knew was coming. Biden did the clean-up and paid the price for the inflation that was its aftermath.
That was then, and this is now, and the new alliances that are forming around Trump—with Musk the most fascinating figure at their center—hold promise that we cannot afford to overlook. Forget “one president at a time.” The new world order is here.
