Of all those celebrating the re-election of former President Donald Trump, few have as much reason to celebrate as Elon Musk. Less than a week after November 5, his fortune had increased by 70 billion dollars (around 66 billion euros), a monstrous return on an investment in the Republican's campaign which already seemed disproportionate: 120 million dollars, on a few months.
Because the conversion of the richest man in the world into a Trumpist activist is recent. In 2020, this former Democrat, who used to praise the merits of his company, Tesla, in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, and financed both Democrats and Republicans (but abstained from presidential campaigns), responded to the journalist of New York Times Kara Swisher who questioned him about his political ideas: “I am socially very liberal. And economically, I'm maybe right of center, or center. I don't know. » He was simply calling for a “normal person with common sense”dont “the values hit right in the middle of the country”.
This Musk has become unrecognizable. Now, day and night, he shares on the social network X (formerly Twitter, which he bought in 2022) his dark ruminations on invading migrants, transgender people and « virus woke » which threatens human civilization. With the zeal of a convert, he worked for Trump's re-election, putting his immense fortune, his global communications platform, and his aura as a genius entrepreneur at his service. The president-elect was not mistaken: “A star is born: Elon!”he enthused in a long panegyric the day after his re-election. He's a super genius, we need to protect them, we don't have that many. »
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Elon Musk's political transformation is the thunderous version of a broader shift of part of Silicon Valley – which traditionally leans Democratic – towards the far right. Several industry magnates have embraced, to different degrees, this same political shift.
In 2016, the election of Trump was nevertheless a “moral shock” for the world of tech, recalls Olivier Alexandre, sociologist at the CNRS and author of Tech. When Silicon Valley remakes the world (Threshold, 2023). Former Democratic Party donors such as investor David Sacks, the founders of the largest investment fund in the world – which bears their name – Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, or even the twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – made famous by the film The Social Network (by David Fincher, 2010) for not having created Facebook – followed the same trajectory. Along with others, they joined Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, made immensely rich by his investment in Facebook. The first of them to have supported Donald Trump, he is at the heart of this new political galaxy in formation.
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