Elon Musk might play quite an important role in Donald Trump’s second term in office, which made us wonder: how much do we actually know about Musk? Here are some of the most important facts that could surprise you!
As it turns out, America has spoken, and season 2 of the Donald Trump Presidency is on its way. His cabinet is slowly taking shape, with Trump announcing that Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy could lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Yes, it spells “DOGE,” a reference to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. You can’t really invent this. In fact, Trump declared in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy might “pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut all wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Well, so far it looks quite unlikely for this to be a proper cabinet position for Musk since he would have to divest all of his business interests, like Tesla and X, something he definitely won’t do. However, this is definitely a sign that Musk will play quite a substantial role in Trump’s presidency.
It’s hardly shocking, to be fair, considering how the tech billionaire has totally aligned himself with Trump and his hateful, far-right rhetoric, and become one of the president’s closest allies. Moreover, he donated a minimum of $130 million to him and Republicans; he has let Trump back on X and has made constant appearances at his rallies.
Musk has been spending his time since the election with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, sitting in on calls with various world leaders, such as President Zelenskyy.
Unfortunately, Musk’s influence was easy to be seen right away, when he and Trump recently combined to “smash a very short-term spending compromise” to fund the government. Even if Trump is the president, it is Musk who largely holds responsibility for the uproar, and it was also him driving fury on MAGA media outlets.
His influence on geopolitics
Outside the United States, Musk also started playing an important role in influencing politics in the European Union. While not directly involved in any policy-making, Musk is now “throwing grenades into Europe’s political mainstream over various issues ranging from immigration to free speech, creating a huge dilemma for governments,” as per The Wall Street Journal.
This also includes weighing in on the ongoing debate over immigration in the United Kingdom and France, as well as calling for the UK’s King Charles III to dissolve the Parliament. Musk also made a series of controversial waves with his alleged support of AfD, a far-right party in Germany accused of Nazi sympathies.
The party was also labeled by Germany’s intelligence domestic agency as extremist. What’s even more concerning is that “Musk supports a party like the AfD, which is in parts right-wing and extremist,” said Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
As far as EU leadership goes, many have “asked Brussels to deploy its full legal might to reign in the billionaire tech magnate” as Politico stated, including additional regulations of Musk’s X. This could come to fruition sooner rather than later, especially if the EU plays hardball, since Europe’s Digital Services Act “threatens eyewatering fines of up to 6% of global turnover, or even temporary blocks, especially in case of a breach.”
Buying Twitter
Whether you knew this or not, Musk controversially bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, handing him control of one of the biggest social media brands. Right after his purchase, there were immense concerns over a couple of changes he made to the platform, which he rapidly rebranded as X.
Antisemitic and racist tweets instantly spiked after Musk’s acquisition. In fact, in the first 24 hours after his purchase, over “1200 tweets and retweets” had spread antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League explained.
Increasing hateful rhetoric towards Black people also took a huge proportion, with the Washington Post discovering no less than a 500% increase in the use of the N-word on X only half a day after Musk’s purchase.
In fact, Musk himself used the platform to spread more hate, onlookers suspected and tweeted a link to an article spreading various conspiracy theories about the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Even if Musk deleted the tweet a few hours later, his message “echoed a wider effort by far-right influencers and even some conservatives to try to downplay and spread baseless theories about the attack.”
‘Funding secured’ post
Besides X, Musk also faced a series of legal battles around the company, which automatically put him on the map. Yes, we’re talking about Tesla. One of the most notable ones involves a 2018 tweet in which Musk wrote that he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 per share.
Even so, shareholders decided to sue when it was proven that Musk hadn’t secured the necessary financial backing at the time of this post. A U.S. District Judge declared “there was nothing concrete” in Musk’s tweet.
Moreover, Musk had “acted quite recklessly” in posting about the funding. Tesla investors lost no less than “$12 billion over 10 days as a result” of Musk’s tweet, according to a witness testimony from the trial obtained by Bloomberg. Ultimately, Musk was found not liable for any losses experienced by the shareholders.
Mocking pronouns
Musk made quite clear his opinions on self-selected pronouns, and he did so on multiple occasions. This also includes posting that he wasn’t really a fan of self-identifying pronouns, especially if “someone is giving every visual cue for he or she, but then insists on telling you exactly what you expect.”
Another very notable instance took place when he mocked the situation by posting “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” which was meant as a jab at the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, who has been previously targeted by conservatives for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Both these tweets generated quite a huge backlash. Musk shouldn’t do such thing as “mock and promote hateful attitudes toward marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the LGBTQ+ community,” as retired astronaut and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said. Dr. Fauci is a “very dedicated public servant, whose sole intention is to save lives.”
Musk’s former partner, singer Grimes, weighed in on the matter. Following those tweets, she asked him “to turn off his phone or even give her a call.” In other words, to do anything else than promote hateful behavior.
His children’s names
Musk has no less than 10 children and has also generated a lot of media buzz for some of their, well, unusual names. In 2020, Musk and Grimes welcomed a son named X Æ A-12. This basically created a stir, since in California, where Musk was living at the time, names could only use the 26 letters of the English alphabet, as The Washington Post said.
His name was eventually changed to remove the “12.” The ex-couple also has a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl. Her name has since been changed to Y, Why, or ?, as USA Today explained. In 2022, another one of Musk’s daughters, who is transgender, decided to legally drop Musk as her last name. She stated that she did not want to be “related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form.”
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