Who Is America's Worst Living Villain?

I think Liz Cheney’s announcement that she would vote for Kamala didn’t surprise anyone. I suspect that despite what all the NeverTrump contingent is making out of it, it won’t bring Kamala a single electoral vote. It's not going to change the minds of Republican voters, but, at best, it might help bolster Harris's image among moderates and independents, particularly those disillusioned with Trump but wary of the Democratic Party. Even if Liz Cheney’s influence is, let’s say… limited, it may still signal to certain centrist voters that Harris is a stabilizing force in contrast to Trump’s erraticism.

And then, suddenly, on Friday, something that wasn’t expected… Dick Cheney’s announcement that he’s voting for Kamala is probably worth less electorally than his daughter’s does anyone at all anywhere care what he says about anything? Has there ever been a more discredited and reviled  U.S. politician? I’d be surprised to hear that Kamala eventuated his endorsement. Trump flipped out over it though:

Many who once saw Dick Cheney as pure evil, now see Trump in the exact same light— a relentless force of unbridled malevolence. More than once, though, I’ve wondered who’s rottener, Trump or Musk. This Twitter poll has Trump way ahead with Musk in second and the two far outpacing Cheney and Traitor Greene. Many commenters were adamant that Cheney should get the crown. Personally, I think Musk is the worst… and, besides, Trump has Alzheimers and will be dead or institutionalized soon.

But I think everyone would agree that Trump + Musk is a toxic, perhaps fatal, mixture. And yesterday, Politico reported that Trump has a plan to appoint Musk to lead a government efficiency commission. There are many problems with that— just look at what Musk has done to Twitter’s valuation— but vaulting the world’s richest man into an unprecedented, unaccountable role as a bona fide American oligarch is the most disturbing of all.

“This is like red lights blaring, all kinds of conflicts of interest,” said Danielle Brian, president of the Project on Government Oversight.

Beyond the possible competing interests, Musk’s potential foray into government would represent a striking development for the tech titan, who would essentially have a role at the highest levels of business, manufacturing, media and Washington.

At the same time, handing Musk a position in his potential administration would fit neatly into Trump’s approach to government. The former president tapped billionaires Wilbur Ross and Steven Mnuchin to serve in his Cabinet, though they had far lower public personas as Musk— and less to gain directly from their involvement.

“Musk is the latest example of a totally gearheaded, engineering-brained, Silicon Valley guy who looks at government and says ‘How hard can it be? Let me at it and I can solve it for you,’” said Peter Leyden, founder of the strategic foresight firm Reinvent Futures and a former managing editor at Wired. “There’s been many of these characters before and he’s just the latest.”

Musk firmly planting himself into politics is not surprising to those who have watched him move from electric car innovator to space entrepreneur to owner of Twitter (and online troll of liberals). But tech experts say Washington may be tricky terrain for a Silicon Valley businessperson unaccustomed to the complexities of federal bureaucracy.

…Like Trump, Musk has expressed hostility toward government oversight— particularly in California.

The billionaire had long-running feuds with the state’s deep-blue government and has often tussled with the state’s powerful labor interests. Early in the pandemic, he defied local public health orders and continued manufacturing cars at Tesla’s Fremont plant in spite of the threat of Covid-19— later suing to block what he called “fascist” restrictions and threatening to move the headquarters out of state.

He ended up moving some company’s operations to Texas later that year, but continued to grow Tesla’s footprint in California. He made similar threats of withdrawal earlier this year when, outraged over new protections for LGBTQ+ youth, he vowed to move Twitter and SpaceX to the Lone Star State. Last month, he announced the social media platform would shutter its offices in downtown San Francisco, relocating employees to nearby Palo Alto and San Jose.

Musk has also faced legal scrutiny for his labor practices at both Tesla and Twitter. A California judge found that he and other Tesla executives violated labor laws in 2017 and 2018 by sabotaging attempts to organize workers. Hundreds of former Twitter employees sued him after his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in 2022, accusing him of failing to pay severance.

Lorena Gonzalez, head of the California Labor Federation, for years has traded barbs with the billionaire. She noted that state lawmakers often viewed Musk as a positive for the state — giving Tesla millions in subsidies and touting it as a marquee California company.

“His product was often kind of labeled as enviro,” she said. “But there was nothing about him that suggested he was a progressive or liberal.”

Musk’s push into national politics grew with his 2022 purchase of Twitter. He immediately oversaw mass layoffs and implemented a new vision promoting free speech— reforms that brought partisan criticism he was enabling misinformation and harassment on the platform. Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter’s valuation has plummeted and investors lost over $24 billion.

At the Reboot conference Thursday, hosted by the right-leaning tech think tank Foundation for American Innovation, attendees were largely indifferent or inattentive to Musk’s audacious pledge to lead Trump’s commission.

Patrick Blumenthal, founder of the Anomaly venture capital fund, suggested that given its apparent lack of relation to any of Musk’s tech projects it reflected a certain level of dilettantism not uncommon in the tech world.

“Tech and politics, to some extent, I think are incompatible,” Blumenthal said. “But you have an industry full of intelligent people, so it’s inevitable that some of them will want to see if that intellect works in another arena.”