the essential
The Nobel Prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz believes that with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, “the United States […] become an oligarchy “of techno billionaires. The first now has direct access to the White House. What role will he play with Trump? The analysis of Françoise Coste, professor of North American studies at the university Toulouse Jean-Jaurès.
What role will Elon Musk play with Donald Trump, advisor, modernizer or “president second” as some already present it?
Everyone is asking the question. For the moment, we will say “a leading role” but before talking about it, we must first emphasize that no one in the Republican Party saw it coming and even less at this level of power. He came after Trump at the end of the campaign and hasn't let go since. What is therefore very surprising is that Elon Musk very quickly took a prominent place to the point of eclipsing Vice-President JD Vance and this omnipresence effectively means that he is now “the real vice-president”, “the co-president” or the “shadow president”, which disconcerts many people.
What is this “Department of Government Effectiveness” that Donald Trump entrusts to him?
In fact, it is not a ministry and one of the problems is that no one knows the status of this future entity. A federal department or agency must be created by law, passed by Congress. This is the prince's doing. Officially, we speak of a “department” but today, it has no legal existence, no offices, no budget, no defined perimeter. Cut federal spending? Which ones, how? For whose benefit? This is the most total vagueness, but there is still a rule of law in the United States and no one can create such an entity ex nihilo.
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Trump, Musk… For you, who is the “useful idiot” of the other?
Trump, in my opinion, because he has always been obsessed with money and because he is flattered in his vanity by the presence of the richest man in the world at his side, by the pioneering potential that he embodies with his dream of Mars. Musk doesn't care about flattery, he wants power.
This raises the question of the conflict of interests between its own space ambitions and those of the United States, for example…
-The problem is already there. Musk is already essential for the American army, particularly for satellites. Even if Kamala Harris had won, Musk would have been a threat. If he decides to no longer provide data or satellites to the Pentagon, American security will be affected and this is of great concern.
How much influence do you think he actually has over Trump?
This is a very good question because he has no political future: he was not born in the United States, he is naturalized, so he can never be president. Is he there to kill NASA, its main space competitor? Maybe. Is it purely economic, to favor its industries? Does he above all have a political and ideological vision to impose his economically ultraliberal but also liberticidal and conservative ideas? You have to ask yourself the question…
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Can it also threaten the ambitions of Trump's entourage?
At 40, Vance saw himself as the future of the Republican Party. And Musk made it invisible. So yes, this could give rise to an anti-Musk wing within the party. Given the disrepair of the Democrats, the hope for democracy would be that Republicans and techno oligarchs do not get along with each other.
On January 15, the American stock market watchdog opened proceedings against Elon Musk over the takeover of Twitter in 2022. Will this have an impact?
No, because the new Minister of Justice, Pam Bondi, will easily be able to stop these prosecutions. But if Trump thinks he is overshadowing him too much, he will have the means to order the Department of Justice to go “Musk hunting.”
