Musk Is Inserting Lots Of His Cronies Into Government Positions
Yesterday, Theodore Schleifer, Ryan Mac, Lily Boyce, and Kirsten Grind took a look at the people who influence mentally deranged South African fascist Elon Musk, and those who stand to gain from their association with him now. Musk spent between a quarter and a third of a billion dollars to buy a place next Trump in his presidency. He just showed what he could do by overriding the will of congress and killing— with Trump’s grudging help— the carefully negotiated bipartisan spending bill to keep the government open. Musk made sure that the final bill didn’t include, for example, financing for children’s cancer research… among dozens of other expenditures that the billionaire class doesn’t care about. Among the menagerie of Musk influencers are people who shape how he “operates and views the world. Many have propped him up, in the good times and the bad, and some now stand to gain from his new position in U.S. politics.”
They began with Musk’s backers (investors):
Steve Jurvetson is a longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist and was an early investor in SpaceX, where he is a board member. He is also a Musk superfan. On a podcast in 2020, he praised the billionaire for being “the greatest gift of the American dream living right now.”
Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist (heavy emphasis on “capitalist”) is one of Musk’s big financial supporters in Silicon Valley: His firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has backed SpaceX, Twitter and xAI (and the takeover of the GOP
Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, he led the firm’s deals into SpaceX, Twitter, xAI and Boring Company. He has played a big role in Musk’s work during the presidential transition.
John Hering, a venture capitalist, invests in Musk’s companies and has become a trusted adviser. Recently, Hering has spent time in Palm Beach helping with the presidential transition.
Peter Thiel and Musk are members of the so-called PayPal Mafia, a group of founders and early employees of the payments company. While Thiel helped oust Musk from the company decades ago, he has recently become a political ally and supporter. JD Vance once worked for Thiel’s venture capital firm, and Thiel, who bought Vance his Senate seat, introduced him to Señor T.
Roelof Botha, fellow South African, he was also a member of the PayPal Mafia. Now, as the managing partner of Sequoia Capital, he oversees the venture firm’s various investments into Musk’s companies, including Twitter and xAI.
Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle and the fourth richest man in America after Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, is a self-described good friend of Musk’s and has taken part in some Trump transition meetings. When Mr. Musk bought Twitter in 2022, Ellison committed $1 billion to the deal.
The next category The Times covered were Musk’s “personal friends.”
Antonio Gracias is one of Musk’s oldest friends; his Chicago-based growth equity firm Valor Equity Partners was an early investor in Tesla, Space-X and other companies, and he helped fund Musk’s far right America PAC.
Ken Howery, another Stanford alum, PayPal Mafia member, he’s very involved in Republican politics, runs in the same Austin social circles as Musk and was just named ambassador to Denmark, tasked by Trump and Musk with acquiring Greenland.
Michael Kives, a totally connected Hollywood agent, whose network stretches to everyone from Sam Bankman Fried, Nelson Peltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Willis and Katy Perry, to Bill and Hillary Clinton and Larry Fink, has a home where Musk crashes when he’s in L.A.
Luke Nosek, a close friend in Texas now and active in conservative politics, he’s one of the several entrepreneurs who helped start PayPal.
David Sacks, another South African fascist and PayPal Mafia associate, is a longtime friend who has grown closer to Musk after the acquisition of Twitter and his rightward political shift. Musk got Sacks the position of AI and crypto czar for Trump’s regime.
Sriram Krishnan, a former venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz, he’s part of the crew that took over Twitter after Musk bought it. Musk got Trump to name him to run the AI part of Sack’s czardom.
Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir with Thiel, he provided guidance to Musk’s right-wing America PAC and has helped advise him on the presidential transition.
Rupert Murdoch is close to Musk, as his his son, James Murdoch, a current Tesla board member and SpaceX investor. He and Musk have vacationed together.
Joe Gebbia, a former Airbnb executive, he sits on Tesla’s board and is also part of the crowd that Musk hangs out with in Austin.
Jason Calacanis, a start-up investor and podcaster, he has been a longtime supporter of Musk’s from the early days at Tesla. He has attended Burning Man with Musk and most recently advised him during the ill-fated takeover of Twitter.
Michael Dell, another right-wing Austin-based billionaire, has voiced his support of the government efficiency department and is developing computing infrastructure to help power Musk’s xAI.
Ari Emanuel, Rahm’s brother and a Hollywood mogul, has grown close to Musk.
Robin Ren is a pal of Musk’s from when they were students at the University of Pennsylvania. Ren went on to work at Tesla as a vice president of business development and, for a time, led the company’s expansion into China. He also invested in Musk’s Twitter takeover.
Joe Rogan, the podcaster has hung out with Musk in Austin and Musk has appeared on his show five times in the last six years.
Then came the Family, which The Times quartet described as large and complicated, noting that Musk “has fathered at least 12 children with three different partners. He sometimes mixes business with family matters. His brother has sat on the boards of his companies, while his mother and young son [X, born May 4, 2020] have sat in on meetings for his companies and for his newly formed Department of Government Efficiency.”
Kimbal Musk, his brother, has been a close confidant for years and runs a restaurant in Denver, “but has long been involved in Elon’s companies: He was an early SpaceX and Tesla board member, in addition to advising on smaller endeavors.”
James Musk, a younger cousin [around 30], was involved with the Twitter layoffs and “now works as a trust engineer at X, after following Musk from company to company.”
Errol Musk, the father, is supposedly estranged from Elon but “has visited his son in Texas.”
Tosca Musk, his sister, “is the head of a production company that focuses on adapting romance novels and erotic fan fiction. She has been a big Democratic donor, and helped host a fund-raiser for Stacey Abrams, the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Georgia.”
Grimes, the <https://youtu.be/1FH-q0I1fJY?si=JPQUrAmpR73G4-dr> pop singer<>, born Claire Boucher, is the mother of three of Musk’s children and has been engaged in custody battles wtih him.
X Æ A-12 Musk, his eldest son with Grimes, the four-year-old X, as he is commonly known, has been a frequent presence with his father at his companies’ various offices and at Mar-a-Lago.
Justine Wilson Musk, Musk’s first wife and the mother of five of his eldest known children, helps parent some of those children with him.
Talulah Riley, an actress, is Musk’s second wife, having married and divorced him twice. They remain in contact.
Shivon Zilis, a former venture capitalist and current executive at Neuralink, Zilis is the mother of at least three children with Maye Musk is Elon’s mother, a model and dietitian and frequently attends social and political events with him.
Then came the lieutenants… a small circle of trusted advisers and deputies across his 6 companies to maintain operations. “Some of these men and women have worked with Musk for more than a decade and joined Tesla or SpaceX in the early days, when neither company was a guaranteed success. Some of these lieutenants move from job to job with Musk as he deploys them on the latest issue he’s deemed important.”
Alex Spiro, an attorney with high-profile clients, notably defended Musk in a defamation lawsuit after the billionaire called a British cave explorer a “pedo guy” on Twitter in 2018. Recently, Spiro has become Musk’s attack dog against government regulators.
Chris Young, a top Republican field operative, was hired to be Musk’s political adviser earlier this year. They did not know each other before the election, but Young has led Musk’s tactical work in Republican politics.
Terrence O’Shaughnessy, a retired Air Force general known as “Shags,” is one of Musk’s top lieutenants at SpaceX. He was recently pushed as a candidate for a Defense Department job.
Mark Juncosa, vice president of vehicle engineering at SpaceX, he has worked his way up the ranks in his more than 13 years at the company— one of Musk’s most trusted engineers.
Omead Afshar, one of Musk’s right-hand men, previously oversaw the construction of Tesla’s factory in Austin, and is now involved with the production of the Starship rocket at SpaceX.
Tim Hughes, a senior lobbyist for SpaceX, has become vital to Musk as the company has looked to spread its influence and its satellite internet service, Starlink, outside the US. Musk has put forth Hughes as a potential hire for the Department of Defense.
Ira Ehrenpreis, a current Tesla board member, helped push through a controversial pay package at Tesla that helped make Musk the richest man in the world.
Jared Birchall, a former wealth manager at Morgan Stanley, is the longtime head of Musk’s family office, as well as of the Musk Foundation. He has also been advising the presidential transition.
Jehn Balajadia has the title of “operations coordinator” at the Boring Company, she is actually Musk’s secretary, helping him with day-to-day tasks and scheduling. She often follows him as he travels, and was ever-present during his acqusition of Twitter.
Linda Yaccarino, a former executive at NBCUniversal, is the widely discredited chief executive of X— and often parrots his political views and talking points.
Robyn Denholm, chair of Tesla’s board, the Australian business executive has exerted little oversight over Musk, who had to step down from his role as chairman after his fight with the SEC in 2018.
Tom Zhu, a senior vice preisdent at Tesla who oversees much of the company’s operations in China, an increasingly important market for the electric automaker.
Franz von Holzhausen, the lead designer at [terribly-designed] Tesla, sometimes appears onstage with Musk during launch events. He has worked at the company for nearly 16 years and is one of Tesla’s longest-serving employees.
Ross Nordeen, one of Musk’s most trusted engineers, has moved from Tesla to Twitter and now to xAI.
Steve Davis, one of the people on this list who has earned much of Musk’s trust, is often called upon to help with special situations. Davis, who by day is an executive at the [failed] Boring Company, has effectively led Musk’s work on the presidential transition.
Gwynne Shotwell, the second most powerful person at SpaceX, has overseen the day-to-day operations of the rocket company as it has grown to be a major contractor of NASA and the Defense Department.
The final category is Trump World, where Musk’s introduction has “been swift, after his public endorsement of Trump’s candidacy in July. Since the election, Musk has become almost inseparable from the president-elect, building fast friendships not only with Trump, but also with some of his closest advisers. These alliances will become even more important, as Musk has said he will push to slash federal spending with his government efficiency organization.
Alex Lorusso, a business partner of Benny Johnson’s, the conservative crackpot media personality, was a paid consultant for Musk’s super PAC. Lorusso is one of the several deranged high profile far right voices who was once barred on Twitter and later reinstated by Musk.
Tucker Carlson, interviewed Musk for one of his last Fox shows, has since bonded with Musk, who pays him generously to post episodes of his new online show on Twitter— also to be one of Musk’s social media flacks.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Musk critic now the co-leader of DOGE.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s in-house, Nazi, has long been a recipient of Musk’s largesse. He has worked side-by-side with Musk during the transition on their shared xenophobic agenda.
Nelson Peltz, the self-described “matchmaker” between Trump and Musk and an activist far right investor, he hosted a dinner at his home in Palm Beach this February where Musk first voiced his desire to become involved with the election.
Donald Trump, who did not know Musk well six months ago, has become completely dependent on him and the two have become insperable since the election; they often seem to be mesmerized by each other.
Yesterday, Amanda Marcotte wrote that “the more Señor T denies he's being controlled by Musk, “the less anyone believes him... The Tesla CEO is leading the aging and tired Trump by the nose. Trump's sole ask of congressional Republicans going into budget negotiations was to end the debt ceiling, at least for a couple of years, to spare him the headache of negotiating it while in office. Then Musk started flipping out on Twitter about all manner of line items… Both Trump and the GOP meekly followed suit, nearly bringing government to a halt while scrambling to cut a bunch of stuff to appease Musk, who didn't even understand most of the arguments he was making. In the end, both Musk and Trump failed to kill the bill. Musk did slightly better, getting some of his specific funding proposals, but he failed at the big-picture goal of decimating the budget. Trump, however, failed miserably, losing most GOP votes for his one goal of shutting down the debt ceiling. Most importantly, the process thoroughly exposed Musk’s hold over Trump. Democrats started the ‘President Musk’ meme, and, predictably, Trump's narcissism has led to defensiveness. First, Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt put out a statement insisting, ‘President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.’ It wasn't a full stop, because Trump himself stepped into the gray Sunday at a Turning Points USA event, during an especially sleepy speech. ‘No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,’ Trump told the crowd. ‘And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.’ The generous interpretation of this comment is that Trump is attacking a strawman, as no one thinks Musk is literally going to be president. They are accusing Musk of being the true power behind the throne. A less generous interpretation is that Trump, age 78, got confused and forgot that he doesn't have to keep campaigning. Either way, lots of folks on social media recalled the famous line from Game of Thrones: ‘Any man who must say 'I am the king' is no true king at all.’”
In that fictional universe, the boy-king Joffrey was put to bed. In our world, the suspicion is Trump's handlers give him his phone or golf clubs to distract him, so they can get work done…
Trump's advanced age contributes to suspicions that he is being puppeteered by Musk, who is 25 years younger than the official president-elect. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined the discourse, releasing a video with her dog snoring as she said, "Republicans don’t know who their daddy is."
…Echoing Yale historian Timothy Snyder, Ocasio-Cortez warned that this level of capitalist capture of once-democratic systems is oligarchy. That level of power concentration is what enables outright fascism or similarly corrupt authoritarian systems, like President Vladimir Putin's dictatorship in Russia. This is especially bad for ordinary people because, as we see with Russia, oligarchs suck up increasing amounts of money, while working people struggle to survive. Americans are already struggling, due to inflation and housing shortages, and it's likely to get worse as people like Musk scheme for ways to vacuum up more cash by cutting services to the public. But that's also why, as Ocasio-Cortez said, Musk's involvement is politically toxic for Trump, as it hands Democrats an apt illustration of how Trump sides with rich parasites against working people.
It appears Trump's nominee for chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is aware it's bad news to let Musk worm his way into being the shadow president. Despite all the mainstream media hype after Trump created “DOGE”— the Department of Government Efficiency— cooler heads noticed that this Musk-led initiative is not a real government agency, but a “presidential advisory committee.” These are unpaid and powerless groups, often formed to avoid real change by giving make-work to activists and donors. President Biden did it to shut up people calling for Supreme Court expansion and it's a safe bet that Wiles had the same goal in creating DOGE.
Alas for her, Musk has Twitter and he uses it the same way Trump did in his first term, to rile up supporters and create so much noise that those who are putting the leader on “ignore” are forced to kowtow to whims frequently spouted in the hours when more sober people are sleeping. Musk is doing what he became unbelievably wealthy doing: stealing other people's ideas and passing them off as his own. In this case, he's swiping Trump's strategy of using Twitter mobbing tactics to work around the bureaucratic obstacles… [I]t’s hard to ignore that Republicans, having spent years kowtowing to Trump's narcissism, are turning their practice towards lavish public obsequiousness to Musk.
No telling how this all plays out, except that it will be chaotic. Despite Trump's victory in November, there have been strong signs for months that his cult-like grip on his followers is loosening. The Republican National Convention was a dud, and Trump's speech was a low point. One gets the strong impression that the MAGA masses are interested in a younger, more dynamic leader. While Musk seems like an odd pick, it’s also true that the billionaire gets exponentially more engagement online than Trump does. When it comes to controlling GOP leaders, Musk has a real advantage. Trump's favorite tool to keep politicians in line, threatening to run a primary opponent, makes even more sense for Musk, who can offer any such person limitless financial resources.
The silver lining in all of this is that Trump and Musk are both mean-spirited narcissists. They'll struggle to avoid conflict if pitted in a “who's more powerful?” contest. Such a fight can only demobilize the GOP base as people take sides in this increasingly ugly fight. Consider how much battles like “Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton” or “Should Biden drop out?” weakened the Democratic coalition. A Musk vs. Trump battle will do the same to the GOP and could be worse since way more people in the mix are cantankerous jerks.