MANDY WIENER: Elon Musk captured the US on a scale the Guptas could only dream of
Whatever his motivation, this boykie from Pretoria Boys High has bought the ear of Donald Trump, soon to be the most powerful man in the world.
Picture: AFP
South Africans recognise this playbook a mile away.
Wealthy and entitled businessmen ingratiate themselves with the political elite, leveraging media influence and platforms to sway public opinion in their favour and consolidate power.
It is precisely the playbook that we have seen used time and again here, most notably by the Guptas of Saharahastan to capture the state of South Africa.
In many ways, South African-born billionaire businessman Elon Musk is the USA’s Gupta.
In the run-up to the US election, Musk proved pivotal in driving the narrative on his platform X towards Trump and has positioned himself within the heart of Trumpland. The owner of SpaceX, Tesla and other companies was literally included in the Trump family celebratory photos on election night.
In his acceptance speech at West Palm Beach in Florida, Trump made particular note of Musk saying, “A star is born, Elon”.
In turn, Musk tweeted, “The future is gonna be fantastic”.
CNN has this week also reported, “Musk has been seen at Mar-a-Lago nearly every single day since Donald Trump won, dining with him on the patio at times” and “weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles”.
On Tuesday, Trump named Musk and another influential businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new entity called the Department of Government Efficiency.
He said it would be the ‘Manhattan Project’ of this era, driving ‘drastic change’ throughout the government with major cuts and new efficiencies in bloated agencies.
“A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” said Trump in a statement.
This would be the equivalent of former President Jacob Zuma appointing Tony Gupta as a red-tape cutter in the Presidency. Even Zuma didn’t cross that line to literally appoint one of the brothers into an official government position.
While any attempt to improve government efficiency should be endorsed, Musk’s appointment raises all kinds of questions about conflict of interest.
Firstly, it’s unclear if this is a position within the government or outside the government as this department did not exist before.
The obvious conflict of interest is that according to The New York Times, SpaceX has secured more than $10 billion worth of federal contracts over the last decade.
“SpaceX, Tesla and other companies Mr Musk created, such as Neuralink, which is manufacturing computer chips that are implanted in the brain, have also been targeted recently in at least 20 different investigations or lawsuits by federal agencies. That means Mr Musk will somehow be watching over agencies that police his companies,” reported the NY Times.
Nevermind the fact that Trump and Musk are trolling everyone by calling the new department DOGE, an apparent nod to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin which Musk has publicly promoted.
Musk, the tech entrepreneur from Pretoria who holds no real affiliation to South Africa and shirks off his ties to this country, has taken a playbook straight out of his birth country.
With cunning, insight and money, he has discovered the ability to wield influence and power.
By pumping money into Trump’s campaign and amplifying hardline views, he was able to sway the election in the Republican nominee's favour.
According to the Federal Election Commission, he donated an estimated $132 million to Trump and other Republicans. He also controversially offered cash giveaways in key swing states.
While the Guptas' motivation was evidently financial enrichment, that surely can’t be a sufficient driver for Musk who is literally the richest man in the world.
In an analysis of this motivation, Al-Jazeerah suggested that Musk’s lurch to the right is occasionally attributed to the government-imposed closure of his Tesla plants during the Covid pandemic.
But his reasoning could be more ideological.
"A variety of American media outlets, such as Vanity Fair and the Washington Post, have pointed to a deeper motivation, sparked by one of his children’s decision to come out as transgender in 2022, cutting ties with Musk and changing their surname to Wilson. Claiming in an interview with Jordan Peterson that he had been ‘tricked’ into signing off on their medical treatment, Musk announced his crusade against the ‘woke mind virus’", reported the broadcaster.
There is of course also the left-field suggestion that Musk could harbour his own ambitions of becoming Trump’s successor as the Republican presidential candidate. Hell, if a reality star anti-establishment character like Trump can do it, so can Musk. There is however the impediment that Musk was born at the bottom tip of Africa and a presidential candidate in the US has to be a natural-born citizen.
Whatever his motivation, this boykie from Pretoria Boys High has somehow managed to capture the United States of America on a scale the Guptas could only dream of.