Donald Trump and the Musk business model

Yale Professor Timothy Snyder is an expert on the history of Eastern Europe, especially the histories of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and World War II. He has become a public intellectual with the publication of his books “On Tyranny” and “On Freedom.”

Snyder has been sounding warnings about the second Trump Administration, not only for what it portends for Ukraine (capitulation to Putin) but to the slide into autocracy and oligarchy as Trump continues to recruit billionaires to his side:

“I think we overestimate Trump and we underestimate Musk,” he says. “People can’t help but think that Trump has money, but he doesn’t. He’s never really had money. He’s never even really claimed to have money. His whole notion is that you have to believe that he has money. But he’s never been able to pay his own debts. He’s never been able to finance his own campaigns.

 

“Musk, with an amount of money that was meaningless to him, was able to finance Trump’s campaign, essentially. And all the threats that Trump is now going to issue – ‘I’m going to primary people, I’m going to sue people’ – Musk is going to pay for that, not Trump. And when Trump needs money for anything, he’s going to be asking Musk.

 

“Unless Trump breaks it off right now, he’s going to be in this kind of dependent relationship for the rest of the way, because you get used to people giving you money. Trump is a little guy, and Musk is a big guy when it actually comes to having money. And I think if you were a friend of Trump, you would be worried.”

The given rationale for electing the “billionaire” Trump was that his wealth freed him to become a populist and speak the truth on behalf of the middle class and working class. That this was myth was obvious as Trump only has ever cared about Trump, and it was made risible by his actions during his first term. But now, Trump has been exposed as a financial charlatan who is completely beholden to Musk. Musk, who was born in South Africa to South African parents cannot run for president himself, but he doesn’t need to. He has bought the presidency. On the evidence, I’d say he made a safe investment.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jan/01/timothy-snyder-trump-musk-russia-ukraine-putin?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwY2xjawHiR1ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHbmtU3nT-dCOO8N0ED3AjgFozJPi2eSb5CZ26nu2zwQYD-pgiiENa40_5g_aem_nL4iPaYpYE0DkZ3zQG-QQA

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