Allies and aides to Donald Trump should be increasingly concerned by Elon Musk’s proximity to and influence on the US president-elect, the Yale historian and bestselling author Timothy Snyder said.
“Trump is a little guy, and Musk is a big guy when it actually comes to having money,” Snyder said. “And I think if you were a friend of Trump, you would be worried.”
Snyder expects that Trump’s soon-to-be home, the White House, will be a stage for uncomfortable and damaging discord between the president-elect and his most powerful ally, the world’s richest man.
“I think we overestimate Trump and we underestimate Musk,” Snyder said. “People can’t help but think that Trump has money, but he doesn’t. He’s never really had money. He’s never even really claimed to have money. His whole notion is that you have to believe that he has money. But he’s never been able to pay his own debts. He’s never been able to finance his own campaigns.
“Musk, with an amount of money that was meaningless to him, was able to finance Trump’s campaign, essentially.”
These articles sound like their primary goal is to anger Trump.
I’m fine with that.
Better than spending the next 4 years calling him pretty hoping it will keep him docile.
Or 4 years of “Trumpanzee SLAMMED for tweeting <thing>, fight about it amongst yourselves, peasants!”
Sounds also like it’s trying to suck Musk off. “Look at how much money he has! That’s so important! It’s a lot more than Trump has!”
Yeah, that is the point of the article. Not to point out the president-elect that was on the verge of bankruptcy for like 30 years is suddenly and mysteriously agreeing with everything the richest man in the world says.
I think we overestimate Trump.
Uh…nooooo, no, no, no.
The only people who think he’s hot shit are his dumbass cult members.
That’s not the only way to interpret that phrase. A lot of people panic at the thought of another Trump presidency because they think of all of the stuff he may accomplish/destroy while regularly forgetting how stupid and incompetent he really is. Practically 90% of everything he says is a lie, but both his fans and his opponents treat every word he says with literal intent. -Any real threat he’s posed has and always will stem from the people he surrounds himself with.
-at least, that’s always been my perspective.
The issue is that while 99% is bullshit… Enough of it is literally his intention so you can’t ignore any of it.
Look at how many people completely ignored all of his talk about tariffs before the election, and he’s already in the process of getting those in place as soon as possible on/after Jan 20th. Or about using the military to enforce deportations even against citizens, and effectively building concentration camps for that. We already have reports that his team is trying to look at implementing that as well.
For every 9 bullshit things that come out of his mouth that can be ignored, one is a legitimate issue and it either gets swept under a rug with the other 9 by the media downplaying it or just ignoring it.
That’s probably the most accurate description of him, but he is still terrifyingly unpredictable, and if he’s surrounding himself with Project 2025 people, there’s still a ton of damage that can be done.
His power comes from the fact that he is so unpredictable (and petty) coupled with the inexplicable fact he was given the most powerful role in our government makes me at least estimate him as a huge threat.
He’s never even really claimed to have money.
Um, yes he has, like all the damn time!
Seriously. This is what the whole NY trial and 36 felonies were about.
I don’t get it. I don’t understand why that would be trouble for president-elect Musk.
Oh, gosh no, please don’t turn on each other /s
This is very concerning for anyone who has paid attention to Musk’s movements/behaviors prior to connecting with Trump. I’m not talking about the X rants (those are a distraction), but Musk’s interaction with the tech industry—particularly the AI industry. I believe the man wants loads of power through AI, and he’ll gain it in very unconventional ways if he influences Trump and the rest of the GOP. This goes beyond an oligarchy. The potential he could have to completely run the world is quite large. This is why so many tech companies are paying massive financial homage to Trump at this time.
I think his goal now is to literally run the world behind the scenes. Notice he’s now trying to influence Germany’s elections.
I think he’s trying to attract these unsavory parties, because they are easy to be bought before and after they are in power. Then he can develop his tech any way he sees fit. If you look at how he’s been interacting with other tech leaders, it’s pretty freaky. He was hassling Dr. Hinton not too long before latching onto Trump.
