Musk to become the most power businessperson regardless of US presidential outcome
Whether the next US President be Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, Elon Musk is set to become the most powerful businessperson in US history. His global leadership in satellites makes him vital to US defence and communications irrespective of who becomes president.
Musk’s role in a Trump administration will be even more powerful because he will join the cabinet and will apply his artificial intelligence and computer technology teams to transform the US public service.
It is rare in global history for a private person to control a vital defence role in the world’s biggest economy.
His power and influence in the administration of the 47th president will easily eclipse the power Henry Ford, JP Morgan and other former US business titans.
As shadow defence minister when the Morrison government was in power, Richard Marles understood how important control space would be in the future defence of nations and pledged an ambitious plan for Australia. But in government, Marles was spiked by Industry and Science minister Ed Husic who had the support of the prime minister.
We are entering a Star Wars style era, so the 47th President, as part of the alliance, will almost certainly force the next Australian government to reverse that Albanese-Husic decision.
In Australia, delegates to the ADC leadership retreat were told that the facilities in space and on the moon had the potential to not only control global communications, but will almost certainly be used in future conflicts.
US control of space was falling dramatically behind China until Musk entered the space race. SpaceX now owns about 60 per cent of all active satellites in orbit. Musk’s plan is to run a constellation of 30,000 satellites, which will make him much larger in space than the US government.
The threat posed to China from the Musk domination of space has even been recognised by Chinese state media, which has urged its workers to respond by overcoming their “complacency and blind arrogance” and work harder.
Space technology to track submarines in deep waters is being developed, which means that the billions we are spending in nuclear submarines will be of limited value unless we are part of the defence space systems that will be set up in space to counter our rivals.
If Trump becomes president, he will invite Musk into his cabinet as head of Trump’s planned “Efficiency Commission”.
Musk has said that with the help of the enhanced computer power of artificial intelligence – where he is a world leader – he can slash $US2 trillion ($3 trillion) from US government spending, or about 30 per cent of US total expenditures.
No US president would have had in his cabinet a businessperson with such a mandate, adding to his defence, communication and industrial power. Many believe that if Trump becomes president, then the combination of Musk and Vice President JD Vance will eclipse the ageing Trump and become the most powerful force in the land.
If Harris becomes President, there is no way she can ignore the power of the person that dominates space. Despite Musk’s support of the Republicans, she must recognise the huge defence and communication implications of his dominance.
Not surprisingly, the Democrats are now beginning to desperately try to stop in the courts Musk’s deep involvement in the Trump campaign via a million-dollar lottery.
Musk set up “America PAC” to support Trump’s re-election efforts, PAC is now giving away $US1m a day in a lottery where the “ticket holders” are those in the key electorates who a petition to support free speech and the right to bear arms.
Trump’s name is not mentioned, but the voters are mobilised.
Musk has also promised signatories in Pennsylvania with a $US100 reward for each registered voter they refer that signs this petition. Smiling winners with their cheques add displayed on the page PAC social media site.
While Democrats are furious if Harris becomes president, fighting the most powerful man in the US would be a dangerous course, given his communication network will be essential to American defence. And his technology team are also vital to better batteries and the use of electricity in transport and other areas.
Harris’ plan to lift US corporate tax rates should curb Musk, but like all other major American companies, he will have a team that will minimise tax payments.
Whereas previous dominant business Americans gained their strength of control from manufacturing processes or energy, Musk gains his power through the assembly of one of the world's best technology development teams.
They first applied that technology to electric cars and batteries and left the old automotive companies like General Motors and Ford behind. Tesla is now the second-largest electric carmaker in the world, with China’s BYD number one.
The technology power behind the Musk space and automotive operations is only now being appreciated by the wider technology community.
Musk’s AI development team this year in 19 days set up a powerful supercomputer featuring 100,000 H200 Blackwell GPUs.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang claims the same process would ordinarily take up to four years to execute, prompting him to call Musk “superhuman.”
Musk’s influence in not confined to the US. He has had regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has moved from a strong supporter of Ukraine to one who is looking for a settlement.
Because he has a major plant in China, he will almost certainly have direct contact with Chinese leadership. Adding to his defence and industrial technology power is one of the biggest social network operations in the world – X formerly Twitter.
Ford had a communication operation called the Dearborn Times, which was circulated in all US Ford dealerships. No other person of Musk’s power and wealth has owned a major global communication network.
Not surprisingly, joining the Democrats in opposing Trump and Musk are most of the other media groups who are competing with Musk in the marketplace.
Acknowledgement: Details of the solace network of Musk were obtained from Noah Smith, writing in the Substack newsletter.
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