You can fawn over Elon Musk or you can run a populist political campaign. But you can’t do both. On 12 August, Donald Trump joined the Tesla boss for a live-streamed conversation on the latter’s social media platform, X. In what was meant to be a campaign event, Trump proceeded to hand over ammunition to progressives who accuse him of pushing an oligarchic agenda under the guise of populism.
The whole affair was awfully reminiscent of Ron DeSantis’s misbegotten GOP primary bid in 2023. The Florida governor, you will recall, elected to have Musk host his launch event on the “Spaces” discussion platform – used by a fraction of X users, who, in turn, form a minuscule share of American voters. The event was marred by technical difficulties, with many users complaining that they couldn’t join. Musk dominated much of the airtime, and afterward, the campaign hastily put together a video showing the richest man in the world dancing in a tux, while DeSantis could be heard lamenting the American opioid crisis.
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