So here we are, just a few weeks into the Trump/Musk duopoly and many of us are uncomprehending, alarmed, scared, angry, fearful and resentful. As a longtime political junkie, I bounce between all of these – but mainly, I’m fascinated.
In my 85th year, I’ve lived during the presidencies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and once again Donald Trump.
Every president (even Trump in his first term) has surrounded himself with competent and experienced advisors, cabinet members and other appointees. All have been reasonably cautious and careful, and none have been as powerful, eccentric and strange as Elon Musk.
He’s touted as the richest man in the world, as he may well be. He may also be the biggest recipient of federal funds in America, snatching up billions of federal dollars that help fund SpaceX, Starlink and other businesses. They’re not subsidies – Musk’s companies are by far the best in their particular fields, and their successes far surpass their failures.
He also has a rich and bizarre private life; at least 14 kids by multiple mothers, all given strange and original names, such as Tau Techno Mechanicus and Exa Dark Sideræl.
None have been as powerful, eccentric and strange as Elon Musk.
And now he has a new best friend, collaborator, advisor and convicted felon to hang out with: President Donald J. Trump. Entering his second and almost surely last term in office, Trump is to the presidency what Musk is to the business community: one of a kind. He’s a multibillionaire, often accused of being a brilliant scam artist, who has had a tumultuous and, in many ways, enviable life.
Who among us wouldn’t want to live at Mar-a-Lago, or in a fabulous New York City apartment? By contrast, the White House is just a dreary old dump swarming with Secret Service agents and fawning politicians. By spending so much time creating an American agenda for the next four years, Musk and Trump are working like dogs when most of us would relax, calm down, golf, throw parties, drive fast cars and flirt with movie stars.
But that seems to be normal for multi-billionaires; they never stop working. And billionaires of a feather fly together, as did Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos when he signaled his support of the Trump/Musk era by announcing that “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
Future historians may record this era as the Third Triumvirate, following the First Triumvirate, the coalition of Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in 60 BC and the Second Triumvirate, a coalition formed by Mark Antony, Marcus Lepidus, and Octavian in 43 BC. Trump, Musk, Bezos – smart and rich, but would you want to meet them at a cocktail party? I wouldn’t – but how about three of their present and former spouses or love interests? Melania, Grimes and Mackenzie Scott? Now that would be a fun party!
As Caesar once said, “Veni, Vidi, Vici”; I came, I saw, I conquered.
But I’d have to say, “No one told me, I wasn’t invited, so I stayed home.”
