Seeing the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, dancing and jumping like Mick Jagger on the Trump campaign stage, showing his abdomen and navel, is to remember a truism: money is the mother’s milk of politics.
This does not mean that gigantic sums are only the responsibility of the Republican Party.
Democrats have far outpaced Team Trump this year, pocketing $1 billion since Kamala Harris joined the race. Big donors helped kick Joe Biden off the ticket; Not even the presidency could against them.
The difference is that Donald Trump – a candidate whose main calling card is his own wealth – has always made an effort to personalize his billionaire backers.
In the last Trump White House, Wilbur Ross (Commerce Secretary), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury Secretary), Betsy DeVos (Education Secretary), and Linda McMahon (Small Business Administrator), also became personalities in their own right. as centers of power.
Seeing the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, dancing and jumping like Mick Jagger on the Trump campaign stage, showing his abdomen and navel, is to remember a truism: money is the mother’s milk of politics.
Donald Trump, a candidate whose main calling card is his own wealth, has always made an effort to personalize his billionaire backers.
They also got their jobs primarily because they showered Trump with cash.
In the past, large donations could earn an ambassador title; With Trump you could buy real power.
It is one of the stark and baffling contradictions of Trump’s politics and personality: he is the populist candidate who speaks to the economically disenfranchised worker, who at the same time surrounds himself and courts the attention of some of the most brutal billionaires. of the world.
Trump’s most fundamental personal identity is that of billionaire, and his personal comfort zone—on the golf course, at his various clubs, and while doing business—is among them.
Going forward to 2024, rising billionaires in Trump’s circle include John Paulson, now frequently discussed as a possible next Treasury Secretary. Paulson had been a little-known investor before the 2008 financial crisis. But then, by betting against the real estate market, he made $4 billion almost overnight.
Making money is substantially different—indeed, bears no resemblance—to regulating the economy and funding the government, but Paulson has lavished his wealth on all three of Trump’s presidential bids and now travels often as part of Trump’s entourage.
In April, Paulson hosted a dinner at his $110 million Palm Beach mansion for a long list of other billionaires who earned the Trump campaign more than $50 million.
Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, washed his hands of Trump after January 6 and even tried to keep him off the Fox airwaves, but is now believed to be in regular contact with him, back in the fold, with Trump once again as a star. from Fox News.
For my podcast (‘Fire and Fury – the Podcast’, hosted with James Truman), I recently interviewed media mogul Barry Diller, who chastised his fellow plutocrats for being willing to overlook Trump’s character solely for their own sake. economic interests.
Regarding Murdoch specifically, Diller – who helped Murdoch start the Fox network – said that “while Rupert has been, throughout his life, anti-establishment, he has also flattered the establishment of the day, in the most flattering way.” ‘
Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania investor whose secret wealth may put him near the top of the billionaire pack, is one of the biggest investors in TikTok, a Chinese-controlled company that Trump had long attacked, calling for it to be banned in USA. or separate from your Chinese overloads.
After Yass became one of the largest outside investors in Truth Social (the social media network in which Trump personally has a 60 percent stake), Trump suddenly became a TikTok booster.
But back to Elon Musk, who, with $247 billion in the bank, may be in a whole new league. Musk is heavily funding a variety of Trump-related super PACs, as well as his own big “get out the vote” effort in Pennsylvania, offering Americans $47 for every swing state voter they recruit to the MAGA cause.
That’s how he received his invitation to take the stage at the ‘Return to Butler’ rally earlier this month.
What does Elon want?
Musk is said to have made his support for Trump conditional on Trump choosing JD Vance, who is only 40 years old, as his running mate.
Trump initially opposed electric vehicles, which the Tesla founder claims are the foundation of Musk’s fortune. But now Trump is for them.
However, Musk, the visionary, probably sees beyond that.
Each election tends to accentuate the alignment of a particular demographic group or the strength of a new power center. 2024 may be remembered as the year of the tech bros: a group, including billionaire Trump donors Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison, with perhaps more individual financial clout than any before.
Interestingly, there is a belief that tech experts support not so much Trump as his vice president, JD Vance, whose career has been fueled by tech money.
Musk is said to have made his support for Trump conditional on Trump choosing Vance, who is only 40, as his running mate.
So consider this: On the first day of a new administration, Trump becomes an outgoing duck – unable to run for a third term – and the horseman begins to replace him, with eyes already on Vance.
Diller, in his recent interview with me, described Musk’s mind as “broad, but often confusing.” By spacious he meant that Musk was a visionary capable of correctly imagining the contours of the future. Musk sees the steady advance of technological power in the new world of AI and may already be looking ahead to the complicated regulatory war with the government that the tech brothers will have to wage to emerge victorious.
That’s the strategic power game he may be playing, with Vance as his representative.
But there’s also the “confused” part of Musk’s mind. There are the drugs he proudly consumes, the lifestyle several women provide for his dozen children, and the $44 billion he squandered on Twitter to alienate half of his audience.
$247 billion probably makes you believe you can do anything and no one can stop you. Billionaires are not subject to the same rules as the rest of us.
As Musk pranced and twirled and his shirt rode up to his chest on the Butler stage, Trump seemed to look at him with bewilderment and even horror.
What if the megalomania of his billionaire supporters turns out to be even greater and more demanding than his own? Is that the new world Trump was envisioning on Butler’s stage?
