Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author: Wenser (@wenser2010)
On October 17, Musk, the 53-year-old "technology madman" and known as the "Iron Man of Silicon Valley", appeared as scheduled in Folsom, Pennsylvania.
This is a quiet town with a permanent population of less than 9,000. Residents rarely talk about their political inclinations in public, and there are even fewer relevant political slogans. Like countless ordinary American towns, people here are not particularly interested in "who will be the ultimate winner of the presidential election," at least on the surface.
There are nearly 20 days left before the US election. In order to ensure that Trump, the Republican presidential candidate he supports, can return to the White House, Musk has started his "vote-pulling tour" - this is the first stop of his nationwide speech tour, and the first speech will be held at the town hall in the small town of Folsom. Although this was originally a closed-door speech (Odaily Planet Daily Note: It is reported that participants must be registered voters in Pennsylvania and must sign a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution), Musk, who has always been unconventional, chose to simultaneously start the Space live broadcast and video live broadcast on X (formerly Twitter), and said bluntly: "I will answer as many questions as possible from offline and online viewers."
At that time, he was not sure whether Trump could eventually win the throne of the 47th President of the United States, but his consistent life creed and style of doing things told him: This is a war without gunpowder smoke, and he can only move forward and cannot retreat.
As for why Pennsylvania was chosen as the first stop, it is not only because Trump was attacked with guns at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July this year, nor is it just because this is the state where the Wharton School of Business where Trump once studied is located, and the University of Pennsylvania where Musk once studied, but the more important reason is that Pennsylvania is "the most critical of the seven key swing states in the presidential election" - it holds 19 of the 270 electoral votes required to win, and this is the "must-fight place" in this "battle of the donkey and the elephant."
As Musk said: "I think Pennsylvania is the key to this election. I think this election will determine our future, the fate of the United States and the fate of Western civilization, not only who will be president for the next four years, but also what the world will become. Pennsylvania is very, very, very important to the future of the world."
Musk has been preparing for this day since he chose to bet on Trump. No, even earlier than that, before the acquisition of Twitter was completed in October 2022, Musk had already been preparing for this day. Facing the United States and tens of thousands of American people who are sliding step by step into the abyss of liberalism, he must cheer for Trump and fight for a future for himself. Otherwise, what awaits him will be the "arrangement" that the "enemies" have planned for a long time - disgrace and even eternal damnation.
He had no choice but to go ALL IN, risking his entire fortune, life, and reputation.
Musk's past: Before becoming the world's richest man, he gambled a lot
Musk's grandfather was the first person to fly a single-engine plane from Africa to Australia. They moved from Canada to South Africa, creating a changing and complex living environment for Musk's mother, Maye Musk. The family's motto is: "Live dangerously-carefully (dare to take risks, but be careful)".
This sentence has become one of Musk's most classic life annotations. Peter Thiel, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal, commented: "Musk takes risks for the sake of taking risks. He seems to enjoy it and sometimes even indulge in it."
Born in June 1971, Musk experienced "school violence" from his peers, "domestic violence" from his father, and all kinds of cruel adversities in his childhood. He matured quickly at a speed far beyond ordinary people's imagination, and by seizing the opportunities of the times, he achieved unimaginable success in the secular sense in just a few years.
In 1995, Musk and his brother Kimbal co-founded the network software company Zip2 with the help of a loan. The company was acquired by the American computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million in 1999. In March of the same year, Musk co-founded the online bank X.com with Ed Ho, Harris Frick, Christopher Payne and others in Palo Alto, California, of which Musk invested $12 million. In 2000, the company merged with its competitor Confinity to form PayPal, becoming a giant in the online payment industry. In 2002, EBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion.
After two "All in" entrepreneurial experiences, Musk's personal wealth soared from US$22 million to US$180 million, making him a true billionaire. And this is just the beginning for him.
Even in the "golden age of the Internet" around 2000, when there were many geniuses and the world was in its heyday, Musk, who was in his early 30s, was the most popular person at the time. Not only that, the "PayPal Mafia" will become more famous in the Internet, technology, and investment fields in the United States, and will become an "elite group" that no one dares to ignore. Musk is a core member of the "PayPal Mafia".
Since then, Musk has started his own journey to the stars and the sea. With the "first principles" engraved in his bones, he began to set his sights on the civil aerospace industry, new energy vehicle industry, and a series of subsequent top technology industries that few people were involved in at that time:
In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, a private space launch company. In 2004, he joined electric car maker Tesla as chairman and product designer, and in 2008 he became CEO.
In 2006, he helped found SolarCity, a solar services company (which later became Tesla Energy, a subsidiary of Tesla);
In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a leading non-profit artificial intelligence company. Although his relationship with OpenAI founder Sam Altman deteriorated and they even went to court, his early contributions to OpenAI are still obvious to all. The creation of the subsequent xAI and its subordinate AI model Grok was also the result of his efforts.
In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain-computer interfaces; in the same year, he founded The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company to develop hyperloop trains;
In April 2022, Musk decided to acquire Twitter for $44 billion. Although the transaction was suspended for a while due to issues such as Twitter's junk data management, he finally completed the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion on October 27 of that year, and changed its name to X in July 2023. This is the domain name of X.com, the online bank he founded. It was previously acquired by PayPal, and then sold to Musk in July 2017.
Of course, behind the magnificent journey, there are difficulties, hardships and ups and downs. In 2018, Musk was embroiled in controversy for manipulating Tesla's stock price due to inappropriate remarks regarding the privatization of Tesla. At that time, issues such as Tesla's factory production capacity also became the focus of outside attention. According to Musk himself, "The pressure was very great at the time, so great that it was difficult to relieve it. A lot of the time I slept directly in the Tesla car factory." The subsequent US SEC settlement fine of up to $20 million for him and Tesla was also a source of pressure. Musk was forced to resign as chairman, but still serves as Tesla's CEO.
Fortunately, time will bring new answers. In January 2020, Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory was completed, marking that Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned automobile company in China. Since then, Musk's various undertakings have been back on track, and every time he tried his best, he finally reaped great rewards. Later, someone simply summarized his past experience in 5 sentences:
24-year-old loan founder Zip 2 earns $22 million
At the age of 29, he used all his wealth to create PayPal and earned $180 million
Founded SpaceX at the age of 32 with $180 million and earned $100 billion
At the age of 34, he invested his last $40 million in Tesla and earned more than $100 billion.
This time, he gambled his entire fortune and life to support Trump and won a great victory.
Compared to Trump, who was born into a real estate family with a silver spoon in his mouth, every step Musk takes can be regarded as a gamble. But fortunately, despite the thrilling, the ending is always successful.
As for the deep connection between the two, we may need to move the time to around 2022, when a "Twitter privatization dispute" involved Musk, the "technology madman", and Trump, the "rebellious politician", and laid the groundwork for today's presidential election victory.
Tech geek rebels against politicians
The hidden clues: Twitter privatization, a master plan for the presidential campaign
As we mentioned in our previous article (How did the American "Crypto Patriarch" Trump come to be?), although Trump regarded Twitter as the main channel for speaking out during his administration, the platform did not give Trump any preferential treatment or support, but instead regarded it as "one of the unstable factors of the platform."
In May 2020, Twitter officially blocked Trump's Twitter account, believing that his remarks could lead to violence. Subsequently, Trump signed an executive order to restrict social media censorship.
In January 2021, Twitter announced in a statement that it had "permanently banned" President Trump's account due to the risk of further inciting violence (Odaily Planet Daily Note: The incident was caused by the 2021 Capitol Hill riots, when Trump's Twitter followers exceeded 88 million). Subsequently, after the riot at the US Capitol, Facebook also banned Trump's account.
The end result is that social media platforms that have always believed in "freedom of speech" have unilaterally banned individuals' right to speak. The right to dispose of accounts as platform assets lies with the platform rather than the individual, even if that person is the President of the United States.
In response to this, Trump's reaction was - If you don't let me speak on Twitter, then I will start over and create a social media platform with freer speech; and Musk's response was more direct - If I don't like you, then I will buy you, and then transform and manage you according to my ideas, putting myself first and using you for my own purposes.
In January 2022, Musk began to steadily buy shares of Twitter. In April of the same year, Musk's shareholding ratio reached an astonishing 9.13%, which was worth US$2.64 billion at the time, making him the largest shareholder of Twitter.
Subsequently, on April 4, Musk disclosed the "Twitter acquisition plan" through SEC13G filing. On that day, its stock price recorded the largest intraday increase since its IPO in 2013, with the highest increase reaching 27%. Influenced by this news, the outside world generally believed that Musk's previous remarks in March such as "questioning Twitter's commitment to freedom of speech" and "revealing his plan to create a new social media platform" were smokescreens to cover up his large holdings.
On April 13, Musk proposed to buy Twitter at $54.2 per share, a total price of $43 billion, and take full control. In a letter to the Twitter board of directors, Musk revealed his plan to make the company a private company: "In its current form, (Twitter) will neither thrive nor meet the social demands of (free speech)." In response, the Twitter board of directors quickly launched the poison pill plan (Odaily Planet Daily Note: The plan is generally intended to restrict a single investor from holding more than 15% of the shares without the approval of the company's board of directors, to avoid a monopoly in shareholding ratios and shareholder decisions). But then, Twitter said it accepted Musk's proposal and agreed to sell.
Just when people thought that the matter would end successfully with "Musk successfully acquiring Twitter", the situation suddenly took a turn and encountered another setback.
On May 13, in response to the news that "5% of Twitter's daily active users are robot accounts", Musk announced that the acquisition would be "temporarily shelved". Twitter's stock price fell 10% that day. Although Musk later clarified that he would continue to push for the acquisition, this move still caused great dissatisfaction from Twitter.
On May 25, an investor filed a class action lawsuit against Musk on behalf of all Twitter shareholders, accusing him of manipulating Twitter's stock price in order to gain favorable conditions for acquisition negotiations - "Musk continued to make statements, post tweets, and engage in actions that cast doubt on the transaction and caused the company's stock price to suffer a sharp drop, in order to create bargaining chips that he hoped to use to exit the transaction or renegotiate the acquisition price." In response, Musk announced via Twitter that the transaction was "temporarily shelved."
On July 8, Elon Musk stated that Twitter had seriously violated several terms of the agreement and decided to terminate the acquisition.
Just when many people thought that the matter would end in such a farce-like way, things took a turn for the better three months later.
On October 3, Musk's lawyer announced the restart of the acquisition, on the condition that Twitter must give up the lawsuit. At that time, Musk expressed his hope to create a "universal application" called "X" through the acquisition of Twitter, which would include various services such as social media and payment. In addition, Musk has repeatedly expressed his optimism about WeChat in offline interviews and various activities, and this move may have been influenced by WeChat to a certain extent.
On October 27, Musk finally successfully acquired Twitter for $44 billion. After the transaction was completed, Musk swiftly fired several executives of this "historical social media platform", including the CEO, financial director, legal director and consultant. In addition, in this multi-billion dollar acquisition, there are also crypto giants and venture capital institutions - Binance and Sequoia Capital provided $500 million and $800 million in support for the acquisition respectively, and Binance founder CZ also expressed his position; there were market reports that FTX founder SBF was also interested in participating at the time, but was rejected by Musk himself.
On the same day, Twitter was officially delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and the S&P 500 index was delisted simultaneously. The once "social media king" finally ended its stock market career with a privatization outcome.
Later on, Twitter will become an important "propaganda platform" and "information center", providing the most powerful help for Musk to realize his ambitions and spread his voice to the outside world; at the same time, Trump will also have his "most steadfast ally, supporter and number one fan".
At the end of October 2022, according to media reports, Musk had fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal policy, who had previously decided to ban Trump's Twitter account (the executive was once described by Fortune magazine as the most powerful woman on Twitter's executive team, with an annual income of $17 million in 2021).
In November 2022, although Trump expressed no intention to return to Twitter and insisted on using his own social platform "Truth Social", Musk launched a vote on Twitter on whether to restore Trump's account, and subsequently restored Trump's Twitter account in accordance with public opinion (51.8% of voters agreed to the restoration).
Interestingly, in May of that year, the New York Post revealed that Trump quietly "encouraged" Musk to acquire Twitter. Musk later denied the news, calling it fake news and saying that he had no direct or indirect communication with Trump.
The first contact between the two dates back to December 2016, when Trump met with Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google parent company Alphabet CEO Larry Page and other technology company leaders in New York after he was elected president. In January 2017, Musk attended Trump's manufacturing conference with executives from Ford, Lockheed Martin, Whirlpool, Under Armour and Johnson & Johnson. The two seemed to have reached a consensus on issues related to the US manufacturing industry, agreeing to cut regulatory costs and encourage companies to produce products in the United States.
Trump once invited Musk to serve as a White House business adviser, but the partnership lasted less than half a year. Because Trump stubbornly chose to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, Musk believed that the decision would hinder Tesla's promotion of clean energy. Eventually, the two parted ways, and Musk turned to support the Democratic Party, which tends to be environmentalist. Subsequently, the relationship between the two fell to a freezing point, and there was even a direct conflict. Musk once bluntly said that Trump should resign. Trump was not to be outdone and responded sharply: "Musk came to the White House and asked me to help him with projects that rely on subsidies. Whether it is electric cars that don't run long enough, driverless cars that frequently have car accidents, or rocket ships that have nowhere to go, without these subsidies, Musk will be worthless."
Musk at a meeting in December 2016
But things change unpredictably. Once friends may become future enemies, and once enemies may become future allies.
In July 2023, Musk changed the name of Twitter to X as he wished, and gradually set its domain name to X.com, which he had regained from PayPal.
In August 2023, Trump, who had been silent on X (formerly Twitter) for more than two and a half years, posted again. The content was a "suspect mug shot" taken when he surrendered in Fulton County Jail in Georgia. The text on the picture recorded the date when he went to surrender, and the charge of "overturning the election results", and wrote "never surrender". Soon, Musk will also join the "Trump camp" and become a member of the team "fighting for American freedom and democracy."
Trump's first tweet after returning to X
It is worth mentioning that Musk said in his personal biography (Musk Biography) published in 2023: "I think it is important to have an inclusive and trustworthy digital public space (Musk said in October 2022 that Twitter should be a fair forum for inclusive discussions of differences)", then he paused and added, "Otherwise, how can we help Trump get elected president in 2024?"
Some people say, "Those who think one step further are predecessors, and those who think ten steps further are martyrs." In the presidential election where one can go wrong with the slightest mistake, Musk began to make his own "hidden chess moves" several years ago, and this will become a key step in determining whether Trump can return to the White House and become president in the future.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend: before the presidency, wealth is the best ladder
As we enter 2024, it is another long-awaited "election year". Can the Republican Party take back the presidency from the Democratic Party, and can the Democratic Party defend its ruling position? This presidential election will become a crossroads that determines the direction of the United States and the world in the next four years.
With the news that "Bitcoin spot ETF was officially approved in January" and "March statistics show that the number of cryptocurrency users in the United States will exceed 52 million in 2023, accounting for 20% of the U.S. adult population", the cryptocurrency industry has become increasingly important in this election.
As a Republican presidential candidate, former President Trump, who once shouted "Bitcoin is a scam", has also joined the ranks of "Bitcoin fans" -
In February, Trump called "CBDC (central bank digital currency) extremely dangerous."
In May, it was reported that Trump had asked whether Bitcoin could help solve the existing US$35 trillion debt problem; in addition, he announced that he would officially accept donations to the US presidential campaign in the form of cryptocurrencies, and said: "Biden doesn't even know what cryptocurrency is. If you like cryptocurrency, you'd better vote for Trump." He also promised to stop the United States' hostility towards cryptocurrency and embrace it.
In June, Trump became the first US president (candidate) to accept Bitcoin Lightning Network payments for campaign donations; he then said: Bitcoin mining may be the last line of defense against CBDC. Hopefully, all remaining Bitcoins will be made in the United States, which will help the United States gain energy dominance.
In July, Trump was attacked with a gun at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and almost died on the spot. According to the person involved, "The bullet whizzed past Trump's ear and shattered the glass of the teleprompter on the stage." Analysts said that after the shooting, the market flocked to non-traditional safe-haven transactions such as Bitcoin. At the same time, the news marked a turning point in American political norms and the emergence of greater political violence. Despite this, Trump attended the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, USA in late July as previously agreed, and said in his speech: According to the current trend, Bitcoin will have the opportunity to surpass the market value of gold in the future; Bitcoin is as important as the steel industry 100 years ago, and we must achieve the greatest success in this field; Bitcoin is not a threat to the US dollar, but the current government is, and the Biden team has wasted a lot of money; Bitcoin will take off (Bitcoin is going to the moon), I hope the United States will stay ahead, lead the trend, and become the "capital of cryptocurrency"; Bitcoin supporters understand inflation better than anyone else, and the Biden administration has let inflation get out of control. When he takes office, he will control inflation and rebuild the "American Dream"; he will subsequently set about establishing a national Bitcoin reserve plan. In the end, the Trump campaign team successfully raised $21 million in campaign funds at this conference. (Note from Odaily Planet Daily: For more Trump's speeches at the Bitcoin Conference, see (Full text of Trump's speech at the Bitcoin Conference: Will establish a strategic reserve of Bitcoin and fire Gary Gensler))
Trump cheers after being assassinated
Everyone knows the story that followed. Due to his poor performance in the first presidential debate and a series of previous reasons, the current President Biden lost his qualification as the Democratic presidential candidate amid loneliness and ridicule. Vice President Kamala Harris officially took over in early August and became the new Democratic presidential candidate.
In August, there was a view that if Harris defeated Trump, the price of Bitcoin might be negatively affected, and her election would be bad news for Bitcoin.
Individuals and organizations including Fundstrat, asset management giant Bernstein, Standard Chartered Bank, etc. subsequently stated that if Trump is elected as the US president, the price of Bitcoin will rise sharply, and may reach 90,000 or even 125,000 US dollars by the end of the year. (Note from Odaily Planet Daily: In hindsight, the current price of Bitcoin has exceeded 90,000 US dollars, and the prediction has become a reality.)
If Trump and the Democratic Party have long had a sour relationship due to the fight for the presidency and his defeat in the 2020 election, then the conflict between Musk and the Democratic Party is more complicated.
In detail, Musk's dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party may be due to the following three aspects:
First, the Democratic government's policy of relatively more emphasis on strong regulation runs counter to Musk's creed of accelerationism and technological innovation. This is a fundamental ideological dispute with no room for compromise.
Second, the Democratic Party has always been unfriendly to cryptocurrencies and even has an attitude of suppressing the industry, which is in sharp contrast to Musk's pro-cryptocurrency attitude. Musk's attitude towards cryptocurrencies is undoubtedly more open and inclusive, and he believes that Bitcoin, Ethereum, DOGE, etc. have their own special value (For more information about Musk's view on cryptocurrencies, see (Decoding Musk's view on cryptocurrency: not just for fun)). Even as early as 1999, when he founded X.com for the second time, Musk said in an interview with CBS Market Watch: "I think we are now in the third stage, and people are ready to use the Internet as their primary financial repository."
The third is a personal reason that is more like speculation - Musk's son Xavier may have been influenced by the "spirit of gender liberalism" that the Democratic Party has been advocating. He completed sex reassignment surgery in 2022 and became a member of the sexual minority group. He changed his name to Vivian Jenna Wilson and took his mother's surname. According to Musk himself, "I was basically deceived into signing (sex reassignment-related) documents for my eldest son." After this happened, he figured out what was going on. It was during the epidemic period, so many things were chaotic. He was also told that the child (referring to Musk's son) might commit suicide. In addition, the entire sex change process was performed on children "well below the legal age." He said, "This is incredibly evil" and anyone who advocates this process should be imprisoned. That year, about a month after his transgender daughter's name and gender change documents were submitted, Musk announced his support for the Republican Party.
Musk has tears in his eyes
It is worth noting that Musk and the Democratic Party have a long-standing grudge. As early as April 2022, when Musk proposed to acquire Twitter, Democratic Senator Warren said: "Musk's deal with Twitter is dangerous" and tried to prevent Musk from acquiring it. After the election this year, Musk forwarded a clip from a previous interview.
In an interview with Musk on TCN, American reporter Tucker Carlson asked: "How much pressure did it put on you to shut down Platform X?"
“Not much else besides multiple Democrats saying they want to put me in jail, cancel my company’s government contracts, nationalize my company, deport me as an illegal immigrant, and arrest me for being Putin’s best friend,” Musk said.
He later retweeted the comment: “Of course, these things put a lot of pressure on me, but it pales in comparison to President Trump, who they tried to kill twice, bankrupt him and jail him forever.”
It can be seen that Trump's successful election finally made Musk breathe a sigh of relief, and the stone that had been hanging in his heart for a long time finally fell to the ground, and his previous efforts of "contributing manpower, effort and money" were not in vain.
According to statistics, in addition to personally traveling around the United States to campaign for Trump, Musk has invested more than $130 million and a large amount of time and publicity resources, including Platform X, to support Trump and the Republican Party (there are also reports that the Super PAC created by Musk spent about $200 million to help Trump run for the US presidency).
Among them, according to the documents of the U.S. Federal Election Commission, Musk donated $75 million to the American Political Action Committee (America PAC) that supports Trump. Trump also mentioned that "Musk will donate $45 million a month to support Trump's campaign." Although this news was later denied by Musk himself, his support for Trump is evident. In addition, when giving a promotional speech in Pennsylvania, in order to prevent voters from not daring to express their support for Trump due to the "spiral of silence," Musk also urged Pennsylvania voters to use various campaign signs to make their attitudes clear. He also announced at an event that from October 19 to November 5, the U.S. election day, he will randomly distribute $1 million every day to eligible voters who sign the "America PAC Petition" (Odaily Planet Daily Note: The petition supports freedom of speech and the right to bear arms), and the first winner of the day was born.
Musk spent $1 million that day
When the mystery of who will win the presidency was revealed, Trump and Musk finally became the ones who had the last laugh. The next step, of course, was the unsurprising "returning a favor".
America's future toward conservative politics and accelerationism: Trump and Ma share the world
After the dust settles, it is naturally time to "divide the spoils of victory."
On the evening of November 5th, North American time, Trump delivered a victory speech to the nation on election night. In addition to thanking his running mate, Vice President Vance, as well as his family, friends, and supporters, Musk became the "person to be thanked" who took up the largest portion of his speech, becoming the undisputed "biggest winner" of the night.
Musk turned X platform into Trump's "campaign base"
Trump mentioned: "Musk is an emerging star who did a lot of canvassing during the election." He also highly praised Musk's technological achievements, especially SpaceX's successful launch and safe recovery of rockets, and Musk's Starlink communications satellites played a huge role in the previous hurricane disasters and extreme floods in North Carolina. Finally, Trump said: "Musk is a super genius, and the United States must protect talented talents like Musk."
There is no doubt that this speech also laid a good foundation and friendly tone for the subsequent cooperation between the Trump administration and Musk's major companies. According to statistics from Fortune magazine, the companies and channels that Musk benefited from include:
SpaceX’s government-related orders for Starlink;
Platform X was previously facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into whether the platform violated the FTC’s data privacy agreement;
The regulatory and innovation support policy impacts that companies including xAI, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and Tesla may face.
After Trump's victory, Musk's personal wealth also rose with the tide, ushering in a new round of skyrocketing:
On November 7, Beijing time, after Trump won the US presidential election, Tesla (TSLA.O) closed up 14.75% on Wednesday, US time, making Musk's net worth increase by US$20.9 billion in a single day, with total assets reaching US$285.6 billion, far exceeding Jeff Bezos, who ranks second on the world's richest list. On the 8th, Musk's net worth continued to rise, up nearly US$5 billion from the previous day.
On November 12, Tesla (TSLA.O) closed up nearly 9% on Monday, U.S. time, pushing the net worth of Musk, the world's richest man, to a new level, with a single-day increase of up to US$16.2 billion and total assets reaching US$320.2 billion.
In addition, the positions in the government efficiency department that Musk and Trump had previously agreed upon were also officially approved, shocking those who had previously believed that "Trump would not meet Musk's demands for power and the two would turn against each other after the presidential election."
Musk posts a message to announce the launch of DOGE
On November 12, North American time, Trump posted on the X platform that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and an American entrepreneur, will work together to lead the proposed Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), which will be committed to reducing bureaucracy, cutting wasteful spending, and strengthening the accountability and efficiency of federal agencies. The latest news shows that the official X account of the Department of Government Efficiency has been launched, and the handle of the account is @DOGE.
As Musk said before: "All actions of the Government Efficiency Department will be published online for maximum transparency. If the public thinks we have cut important spending or have not cut wasteful spending, please let us know. We will also list the stupidest tax spending rankings. This is tragic, but very interesting."
Trump's personal appointment letter
Previous signs have indicated that the future political and economic direction of the United States will largely depend on the decisions of the new President Trump and his "number one fan" Musk.
Therefore, the United States, which has both conservative politics and accelerationism, is about to usher in four years or even longer of joint rule by the "Trump-Ma combination". Whether it is a blessing or a curse, right or wrong, only time will tell us the answer.
Conclusion: There is a future only after the crisis
At the end of the story, perhaps Musk's words in his speech in Folsom are worth revisiting and thinking about. He said: "I was not politically active before. I am actively involved in politics now because I think the future of the United States and the future of civilization are at stake."
In other words, it is precisely because Musk has seen the precarious situation currently facing American politics that he has stepped forward to fight for his own future, the future of the United States and even the future of Western civilization. This is also his consistent attitude towards life - face challenges and face crises. Only in this way can we see the direction of the future.
In the near future, after Trump officially takes office as the President of the United States, Musk may be faced with more challenges, including "Presidential intervention in the Federal Reserve's policy", "US SEC Chairman and cryptocurrency supervision" and more regulatory boundaries in the field of technological innovation. Let us wait and see how they will deal with them.
But now, what we can be sure of is that those who have experienced the storm will have a completely different state of mind after passing through it.
Trump and Musk campaign scene