The woke left-wing liberal meltdown over Donald Trump’s election was a joy to behold. Only the humourless could fail to smile at the outpouring of hypocrisy and anguish over an election result that they did not like. Short memories, indeed.
But how happy should we really be about the apparent election of Donald Trump? ‘Apparent’ because it is becoming clear that he is not his own man and there is little attempt to hide by whom the strings are being pulled. Clearly, I am referring to Elon Musk.
Musk’s involvement in Trump’s election process had its welcome moments. With a brain like Jupiter, probably enough money to settle the national debt of the USA (which may well be in debt to the likes of him in the first place) and the most popular and powerful social media platform at his disposal, his one-liner put downs of those who question his motives are as instructive as they are entertaining.
But now he is everywhere, seemingly, at once. There is hardly an appearance by Donald Trump that does not include Musk, and it looks as if the same may soon be true of UK Reform leader Nigel Farage. Trump has joked (or did he?) that he cannot get Musk to leave his Mar-a-Lago resort. Allegedly, Musk owns no home of his own and famously beds down wherever he is invited.
Musk has inveigled himself, Trojan Horse like, into the Trump political machinery and into the Trump household. All the shoulder-to-shoulder stage appearances alongside Trump, the generous pronouncements of how good things are going to get under Trump and the lavish financial support seem only to have had one purpose: to make things better for Elon Musk.
Last week, the Trojan Horse was opened and out popped the real Elon Musk.
Musk, no stranger to a MAGA hat, has come out and challenged a key plank of the MAGA campaign: control of immigration. In fact, he has come out strongly in favour of it regarding immigrants from India. Specifically, he is keen to import highly skilled technical workers from India using the H-1B visa which allows the import of specialised workers. Already widely used, the most common type of visa, the H-1B visa is favoured by others on the ‘tech Right’ such as his Trump supporting colleague Vivek Ramaswamy (no ethnic conflict of interest there then!).
This has opened a rift between the likes of Musk and the ‘America first’ MAGA loyalists and, it seems, Trump has taken the side of the tech Right proclaiming his own love for the H-1B visa and declaring that he uses it amongst his own workers all the time. That is the first time he has declared this, and it can only be presumed that some pressure was applied behind the scenes by Musk and Co. with an ‘or else’ thrown in.
What the ‘or else’ can be may never be known but it is worth noting that Donald Trump’s fortune is not known. It has been estimated to be in the region of $3billion. We can be sure he is not financially broke, but if he has such a fortune then why was he unable to put up the money, in the region of half a million dollars, to appeal a recent civil court judgement against him? Is he really rich or is he propped up financially, puppet like, by people who can use him towards their own ends? People like Elon Musk. Has Trump ever been ‘for real’ or is all the ‘blowhard with a vengeance’ braggadocio just a show?
The losers here will be the American people, especially those in the perpetually neglected Deep South (described in detail in Paul Theroux’s excellent travelogue of the same name) where unemployment and poverty are endemic. They were ignored by one of their own, in Bill Clinton, and have been ignored by every other recent US president. How does the import of skilled workers from India benefit them? They will neither benefit from the jobs that are being stolen from them nor from any trickle-down effect of the wealth created. Ironically, the Deep South is a Republican and Trump stronghold.
Musk is a popular and entertaining figure for sure. But by those who like his policies and probably agree with him on most things a remarkably blind eye is turned to how he made his fortune: largely through the invention and sale of the Tesla e-car. Of course, everyone knows it, but he gets a bye on that despite the invention and sale of one of the biggest cons in the car industry.
Smart looking vehicles they may be but – if you have ever ridden in one – completely ‘soulless’. The flat dashboard and the flat screen console are reminiscent of an empty shelf above a temporary office desk. They are not carbon neutral or ‘green’ in any way as the energy to charge the dreadful batteries that power them, and the energy used to manufacture them must come from somewhere and that ‘somewhere’ still relies on fossil fuels. They are also not cheap to own and run.
The batteries make them so heavy that they have been blamed for the collapse of a bridge and the weight takes its toll on roads too. We have long known that the lithium used in the batteries is mined by people – often very young children – working in virtual slavery in countries such as the DRC and Indonesia.
The problem of disposing of the batteries, which have a limited life, has not been solved but we can be sure they are not being buried in Elon Musk’s back garden (even if he had one). Claims about the extent to which Tesla batteries are recycled have been challenged. Teslas are dangerous, even when not being driven. As well as exploding on impact in crashes, they have spontaneously exploded posing a danger to anyone nearby. Houses have been burned down.
Musk is praised for his pronatalism; reports on the number of children he has vary between 10 and 12. He is not married to any of the several women by whom he has had these children yet receives next to no criticism even from those on the conservative right who would normally abhor such behaviour. Again, he gets a bye probably due to his extreme wealth which presumably gives him an excuse and makes everything OK in their eyes.
How wide is his influence? This is something we will probably never know but the influence on Trump is palpable, and it can only be assumed that he exercises similar influence, backed by hard cash, on Nigel Farage. Notwithstanding that politics is the art of the possible, it is notable how quickly Farage’s rhetoric on immigration – legal and illegal – has been toned down since he has occasionally plonked his backside on the green benches. Will he soon be emulating his trans-Atlantic hero and extolling the virtues of immigration?
Undoubtedly Trump is better than Harris in the US and Farage would be better than almost any of the alternatives on offer or currently in power in the UK. Better, yes, but at what price to us and at how much profit – power and financial – to Elon Musk?
Roger Watson is a retired academic nurse who lives in the UK.
He is currently engaged in a range of professional consultancies in the UK, Europe and China. He writes regularly for several outlets including The Daily Sceptic, The European Conservative, Country Squire Magazine and The New Conservative.
