Opinion: Elon Musk bought himself a starring role in Trump's second term. What could go wrong?

Elon Musk wearing a cap and shouting into a microphone at a podium with a Trump-Vance sign

By Virginia Heffernan

Nov. 6, 2024 1:25 PM PT

“A star is born — Elon!” Donald Trump shouted early Wednesday morning, giving thanks to Elon Musk for helping him win the presidential election.

When you’re a star, they let you do it, as Trump once said, speaking of mauling women.

Now Trump and Musk, self-styled stars, are a match made in some kind of Book-of-Revelation living nightmare. With Trump’s victory, the duo seem to have put themselves safely out of the reach of the law.

Over the last months, as Musk, the richest man in the world, has poured millions into Trump’s campaign by way of his America PAC, Trump has promised to bring Musk into government.

In September, Trump said he would create a “government efficiency commission” for Musk to lead. This task force would carry out a complete audit of the finances and performance of the entire federal government, with a view to smashing it to smithereens — that is, “making it more efficient.”

“I’d put [Musk] in the Cabinet, absolutely, but I don’t know how he could do that with all the things he’s got going,” Trump also said. “But he could sort of, as the expression goes, consult with the country and give you some very good ideas.”

“Very good ideas” that, let’s guess, won’t exactly hurt Musk’s bottom line, which is currently set at more than $285 billion. (In the hours since Trump’s victory, Musk gained $20 billion.)

For a person who controls this much private wealth to have a starring role in the U.S. government is to open the door to conflicts of interest so immense that, if Trump didn’t already pose such an urgent threat to the survival of the republic, it would be all we’d talk about.

For any other businessman, a chance to serve his country might seem like a good idea. But Musk has held vast governmental power for a long time — and for years has exerted unholy influence over Washington.

To see just a fragment of what Musk might do during a second Trump term, look to the current state of play. NASA and the Pentagon now depend on Musk so profoundly that they could barely survive without SpaceX, which controls U.S. space launches and internet satellites. In 2023 alone, Musk’s companies signed $3 billion in contracts with 17 federal agencies, including the departments of State, Energy and Agriculture.

Musk also holds a top secret security clearance, which gives him access to information that could gravely damage national security if disclosed.

And yet Musk has reportedly been conspiring — no other word for it, in my estimation — with the leaders of powers extremely hostile to the United States.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk has had secret conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022. The conversations reportedly included Putin’s request for a favor for Chinese leader Xi Jinping: Musk should avoid turning on his Starlink internet service for Taiwan.

Taiwan, of course, is a United States ally, albeit an unofficial one. China and Russia are officially not. For anyone at any level of government to scheme with adversaries would almost certainly be actionable. NASA administrator Bill Nelson has called for an investigation.

But because this particular schemer is Elon Musk, it’s been hands off. Musk is an expansively free man, telling cable TV viewers about taking ketamine and turning Twitter-now-X, which still has around 300 million daily users, into his very own Pravda — a dark MAGA propaganda site so influential that Rolling Stone dubbed Musk and X “the biggest purveyors of online disinformation.”

In the early hours of election day, Musk shared a video on X that glorified Jan. 6 and flashed QAnon references. IBM, Disney and Coca-Cola used to advertise on Twitter; on X, you’re more likely to see entries from the far-right, pro-Trump Epoch Times, a media organization affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement.

More than 20 recent federal investigations or reviews have targeted Musk’s companies. Some are fueled by concerns about the safety of Tesla cars and environmental damage caused by SpaceX rockets. Tesla has also faced a raft of lawsuits charging racial discrimination and harassment at its plants, union interference and wage theft.

In October, the Washington Post published evidence that Musk, after coming to Palo Alto on a student visa in 1995, overstayed his visa and worked illegally in the U.S. for years. For Musk, who these days echoes Trump’s spitting nativist rage about undocumented immigrants, the exposure of this secret could have meant deportation — and even loss of U.S. citizenship.

Today, with Trump’s victory, any saber-rattling by federal agencies or immigration watchdogs seems almost laughable. Deportation? Loss of citizenship? Investigations, even?

Sure, for other immigrants who’ve overstayed a visa. Sure, for Trump’s political enemies.

But absolutely not for Musk, mega-American, the brightest star in Trump’s ominous firmament.

Virginia Heffernan is a contributing editor at Wired magazine. Her newsletter can be found at virginiaheffernan.substack.com.