The Establishment’s Love-Hate Relationship With Elon Musk

The story

Elon Musk first came to mainstream prominence in the early 2010s. Ten years ago he was featured in a South Park episode (”Handicar”) which highlighted his stewardship of the electric car company Tesla.

Since then, he has expanded operations dramatically. SpaceX, his space exploration and vehicle production company, is developing a reusable spaceship. In doing so, Musk has become one of the richest men in the world. Recently, he purchased Twitter — now X — which continues to be a success despite the failure of its copycats and constant predictions of its collapse.

Musk’s wealth and anti-establishment activities — he frequently reposts — have garnered him opposition from governments around the world which would curtail his activities. Multiple times, the European Union threatened to ban X because of the platform's free speech policies. A judge in Brazil demanded bans on X accounts critical of the government there.

Meanwhile, it’s difficult for the establishment to hurt Musk because, in many respects, they need him; his technologies often fill a gap that governments have left open, intentionally or not.

The sides

Musk has not endorsed a political party and has not taken a side in the upcoming presidential election, though he admitted to “leaning away” from President Joe Biden and lately has increased criticism of the Biden administration.

The reproval may be because he has come under attack from Democrats. When Musk critiqued Biden’s plan for granting amnesty to illegal immigrants, Democrats — including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar — attacked him for hypocrisy, citing his own immigration status. (Musk does not have birthright American citizenship). Biden and Democrats are scrutinizing his companies under a legal microscope.

But Musk has participated in fundraisers for the Trump campaign and is being considered for an advisory role in the next Trump administration. He has used his platform to critique Biden far more than Trump. Donald Trump recently said he “helped” Musk’s business dealings while president and revealed that he had a sit-down meeting with the tech billionaire earlier this year.

Beyond the headlines

One of the under-covered undercurrents of the establishment’s battle with Musk is that most of his major products are needed by the Western governments that critique him.

China’s electric vehicles (EVs) are swamping European markets, and the only thing preventing them from entering the U.S. are tariffs implemented by Donald Trump. Many major American auto manufacturers are reporting heavy losses on their own EV offerings, which means Tesla is the only significant American EV producer positioned to combat China’s potential market domination.

The U.S. government's situation is more dire when it comes to space. After cancellation of the space shuttle program in 2011, the United States relied primarily on Russia, a geopolitical foe, to get its astronauts into space. If Musk’s SpaceX becomes a reliable space transportation provider, it could free America from Russian reliance.

SpaceX’s Starlink technology, which provides a satellite signal in rural areas, has also been decisive in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ukraine’s forces need it to conduct drone warfare, as there is no other straightforward method for them to get a signal in key battlefield areas.

Why it matters

Musk’s situation highlights a broader issue that will face democracies and dictatorships alike: as ultra-wealthy individuals develop crucial technologies — technologies that governments have failed to develop themselves — those same governments will have to find ways of working with them, even if they are at odds ideologically.

Musk demonstrates that being ideologically at odds with the ruling class — and working with them — is possible.