A fascinating political development and astonishing anyone who followed politics in the United States, tech mogul Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump have become friends.
The process of rapprochement between the two has been more than a straight line. Less than a year ago, Mr Musk responded to a provocation by using a rude name to address the president and said that it was high time for Trump to retire ‘and finally light it up. ’ The man behind Tesla and SpaceX had also said that the former president was a liar when it came to his electoral record.
However, as for Musk, the sentiment reversed when he bought Twitter a few months later and supported Trump’s Republican nemesis, Ron DeSantis. Now, not only is Musk’s temperature with Trump not cold, but it is also hot and rather stable.
On Monday, the two are expected to sit down for a friendly talk show that will be aired on Musk’s renamed Space-X. Both men will hope that the conversation goes beyond the Prada-boots-consuming audience on Space-X today—the hyperactive paid-for users—and that it will not be disrupted by the technicalities that marred DeSantis’s launch-pad campaign announcement.
The turning point in the relationship can be traced back to Musk’s growing disillusionment with the Biden administration and his alignment with concerns that dovetail neatly with Trump’s campaign: fear caused by government censorship, voices protesting against too-freedom media, hatred towards immigrants and people supporting or falling for ‘‘woke’’ movements.
Trump, for his part, appears to have made peace with Musk. Speaking at a news conference on June 19, 2019, he said, “I respect Elon a lot. He respects me,” and referred to Musk’s love for the country and his opinion: “It is in big trouble, and it is in tremendous danger.
One issue that will attract much debate in the forthcoming 2024 presidential campaigns will be Musk’s relationship with Trump. Whether their rapport will translate into meaningful political influence remains to be seen. Still, one thing is certain: The tension we are exposed to here is that one of these two outsized characters has become something other than a person.
