Technocracy Aligns With Kleptocracy
In the 1990s, Elon Musk and his brother, Kimbal, founded their startup Zip2, before they had legal immigration status. The two South Africans were white and college educated and able to laugh about it. Kimbal noted that they were “illegal immigrants” at the time, and Elon, more nervous, referred to the matter as a “gray area” and pointed out that their status became legitimate after they secured investor support, which eventually helped them obtain proper visas, having originally got into the country via Canada where he transferred from Queen's University to the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, with massive subsidies from the U.S. he has become the richest person in the world. He has also become a fascist and, worse, mentally unstable. He has no special loyalty to the U.S. an, like many billionaire technocrats, sees himself as bigger than any national boundaries and transcending them. In the past he has publicly entertained ideas of libertarianism and autonomy that go beyond traditional governance structures, suggesting a broader allegiance to ideals of technological progress and innovation over specific national interests. His involvement in digital currencies, like Bitcoin, and his advocacy for decentralized technologies echo this detachment from traditional power structures. He has often clashed with U.S. authorities and regulations particularly in regard to environmental standards and labor laws. His advocacy for policies that benefit his business interests are meant to upend national priorities, proving without doubt that he values and will fight for outcomes that align with his vision— and business interests— over allegiance to the U.S. specifically. His connection with Trump and the increasingly fascistic GOP is as dangerous as it was inevitable. Musk is attracted to authoritarianism and corruption, not to democracy, which he— like many of the other technocrats— hates.
Through the Boring Company, Musk has loudly criticized government inefficiencies in building infrastructure and, in particular, has proposed private-sector alternatives to major urban transit projects. By promising to create these alternatives— the Hyperloop Project, the Los Angeles Test Tunnel, the Chicago-O’Hare Tunnel (endorsed by fellow fascist then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel), and the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop— Musk advocates for a model of infrastructure that operates without the typical government bureaucracy, emphasizing speed, cost-efficiency, and autonomy from regulatory restrictions. His approach challenges the status quo in urban planning, often circumventing traditional public funding routes or regulatory frameworks. Of course all of his projects have failed, some spectacularly. The one that wasn’t a total laughing stock was the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, which was built but is is a far cry from the autonomous, high-speed transit Musk sold the public on. Instead of a network of autonomous pods zooming through tunnels, the final product is simply a series of Tesla cars driven by human drivers at relatively low speeds (around 35 mph). The project fails to reduce congestion meaningfully and has not expanded to the wider Las Vegas area as originally planned.
The common thread among these projects is that Musk’s initial promises— focused on high-speed transit, low-cost infrastructure, and minimal regulatory oversight— haven’t aligned with reality. Engineering challenges and public safety have shown Musk’s Boring Company’s inability to deliver on his hyperbolic and over-hyped promises. Instead of pioneering a new model for private-sector urban transit, the Musk has ended up producing failed projects, amounting to nothing more than expensive experiments without lasting solutions to urban transportation. In practice, his attempts to bypass government bureaucracy have highlighted why public infrastructure projects require rigorous planning, regulatory oversight and substantial investment.
Wednesday evening’s Wall Street Journal exposé underscores the unprecedented international influence wielded by Musk, especially as he tries to bridge the worlds of business, government and international diplomacy without accountability. The revelations highlight make clear an urgent need to assess not only Musk's direct communications with geopolitical adversaries but also the broader implications of his expanding political role in Trump’s MAGAuniverse. [It’s worth noting that as part of what will likely add up to half a billion dollars in support for Trump’s election bid was a last minute (Oct. 1— there could have been much more since) $10 million contribution to the Senate Leadership Fund with the goal to defeating Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester to capture the U.S. Senate.
The Journal’s point was that “Regular contacts between world’s richest man and America’s chief antagonist raise security concerns… At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping… While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries. Musk has forged deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA. Musk has a security clearance that allows him access to certain classified information. Knowledge of Musk’s Kremlin contacts appears to be a closely held secret in government. Several White House officials said they weren’t aware of them. The topic is highly sensitive, given Musk’s increasing involvement in the Trump campaign and the approaching U.S. presidential election.”
During his campaign swing through Pennsylvania last week, Musk talked about the importance of government transparency and noted his own access to government secrets. “I do have a top-secret clearance, but, I’d have to say, like most of the stuff that I’m aware of…the reason they keep it top secret is because it’s so boring.”
A Pentagon spokesman said: “We do not comment on any individual’s security clearance, review or status, or about personnel security policy matters in the context of reports about any individual’s actions.”
One person aware of the conversations said the government faces a dilemma because it is so dependent on the billionaire’s technologies. SpaceX launches vital national security satellites into orbit and is the company NASA relies on to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
“They don’t love it,” the person said, referring to the Musk-Putin contacts. The person, however, said no alerts have been raised by the administration over possible security breaches by Musk.
…Musk has long had a fascination with Russia and its space and rocket programs. Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk said the businessman traveled to Moscow in 2002 to negotiate the purchase of rockets for his fledgling space program, but passed out during a vodka-heavy lunch. The sale ultimately failed, though his Russian hosts gave Musk a bottle of vodka with his likeness superimposed on a drawing of Mars.
The billionaire’s conversations with Putin and Kremlin officials highlight his increasing inclination to stretch beyond business and into geopolitics. He has met several times and talked business with Javier Milei [fascist leader] of Argentina, as well as former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro [also a fascist], whom he defended in an acrimonious online debate.
Putin is on a different order of magnitude. The Russian leader has created an authoritarian system that oversees fraudulent elections and the assassinations of political opponents, for which President Biden called him a “killer.” With keys to one of the world’s most powerful nuclear arsenals and growing territorial ambitions in Europe, Putin has become the U.S.’s chief antagonist.
Labeling him a “despot,” the Treasury Department took the unusual step in 2022 of blacklisting him for invading Ukraine, putting him in the same company with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
In October 2022, Musk said publicly that he had spoken only once to Putin. He said on Twitter that the conversation was about space, and that it occurred around April 2021.
But more conversations have followed, including dialogues with other high-ranking Russian officials past 2022 and into this year. One of the officials was Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff…
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department said in an affidavit that Kiriyenko had created some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Musk’s Twitter, where it was meant to erode support for Ukraine and manipulate American voters [in favor of Trump] ahead of the presidential election.
After the Russian invasion in February 2022, Musk at first made strong public statements of support for Kyiv. He posted “Hold Strong Ukraine,” flanked by Ukrainian flags on what was then still known as Twitter. Shortly after, he jokingly challenged Putin to one-on-one combat over “Україна,” the Ukrainian language name for the country.
He followed up by donating several hundred Starlink terminals to Ukraine. By July some 15,000 terminals were providing free internet access to broad swaths of the country destroyed by the Russian attacks.
Later that year, Musk’s view of the conflict appeared to change. In September, Ukrainian military operatives weren’t able to use Starlink terminals to guide sea drones to attack a Russian naval base in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow had occupied since 2014. Ukraine tried to persuade Musk to activate the Starlink service in the area, but that didn’t happen, The Journal has reported.
His space company extended restrictions on the use of Starlink in offensive operations by Ukraine. Musk said later that he made the move because Starlink is meant for civilian uses and that he believed any Ukrainian attack on Crimea could spark a nuclear war.
His moves coincided with public and private pressure from the Kremlin. In May 2022, Russia’s space chief said in a post on Telegram that Musk would “answer like an adult” for supplying Starlink to Ukraine’s Azov battalion, which the Kremlin had singled out for the ultraright ideology espoused by some members.
Later in 2022, Musk was having regular conversations with “high-level Russians,” according to a person familiar with the interactions. At the time, there was pressure from the Kremlin on Musk’s businesses and “implicit threats against him,” the person said.
At the same time, Musk increasingly took to Twitter, for which he was completing the purchase, to say SpaceX was losing money by funding the operation of the terminals.
In October 2022, he asked his tens of millions of followers on Twitter to vote on a pathway to peace that mirrored some aspects of the Kremlin’s offer to Ukraine at the time.
Those conditions included continued Russian occupation of Crimea and Ukrainian neutrality outside of NATO. He also specified that Ukraine should continue allowing the supply of water to Crimea, an issue that had been an important concern of the Kremlin before the war.
One current and one former intelligence source said that Musk and Putin have continued to have contact since then and into this year as Musk began stepping up his criticism of the U.S. military aid to Ukraine and became involved in Trump’s election campaign.
In the fall of 2022, political scientist Ian Bremmer, founder of New York-based consulting firm Eurasia Group, wrote on Twitter that Musk had told him he had spoken with Putin and Kremlin officials about Ukraine. “He also told me what the Kremlin’s red lines were,” he wrote.
Bremmer wrote in a newsletter to subscribers that Musk had relayed to him a message from Putin that Russia would secure Crimea and Ukrainian neutrality “no matter what,” and that it would respond to a Ukrainian invasion of Crimea with a nuclear strike. Musk said that “everything needed to be done to avoid that outcome,” Bremmer wrote.
Musk has publicly denied he said any of those things to Bremmer.
In the past year, Musk and Russia’s interests have increasingly overlapped. Apart from Russia’s use of Twitter for disinformation and Musk’s outspoken opposition to aid to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said earlier this year that Russian forces occupying the country’s eastern and southern swaths had started using Starlink to enable secure communications and extend the range of their drones.
Russian troops also began using Starlink terminals, brought in through third countries, at a massive scale, undermining one of Ukraine’s few battlefield advantages. Musk has said on Twitter that to the best of his knowledge, no terminals had been sold directly or indirectly to Russia, and that the terminals wouldn’t work inside Russia.
Pentagon officials have said the military was working with Ukraine and Starlink to address the issue, and described SpaceX as a great partner in those efforts. People familiar with the situation have said controlling who is using Starlink in Ukraine is difficult.
Starlink has said on Twitter that when SpaceX learns of claims that unauthorized parties are using the service, it investigates and can cut off access.
Earlier this year, Musk gave airtime to Putin and his views on the U.S. and Ukraine when Twitter carried Tucker Carlson’s two-hour interview with the Russian leader inside the Kremlin. In that interview, Putin said he was sure Musk “was a smart person.”
“There’s no stopping Elon Musk, he’s going to do what he thinks he needs to do,” Putin said. “You need to find some common ground with him, you need to search for some ways to persuade him.”
Late last year, the Kremlin first made the request of Musk to not activate Starlink over Taiwan, said a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the situation. The request was done as a favor to China, he said, whom Russia was increasingly relying on for trade and to get around sanctions. A representative of the Chinese embassy in Washington said they weren’t aware of the specifics and couldn’t comment.
Starlink has never secured permission to offer internet service in Taiwan, whose government places restrictions on non-Taiwanese satellite operators.
Taiwan is currently listed as “coming soon” on a Starlink map of where it provides service.
As the year progressed, Musk became more preoccupied with the presidential election.
Through the first months of the year, Musk said he would refrain from backing any presidential candidate while at the same time holding private conversations discussing how he could get Trump elected. Musk publicly endorsed him in July. The businessman said he planned to commit as much as $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee in part to get it done, according to people familiar with the matter. The effort included hiring armies of canvassers to scour battleground states for voters.
Since then, Trump has said he intends to make Musk the head of a “government efficiency commission.” The two speak often.
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