Leaders | On another planet

Elon Musk is Donald Trump’s disrupter-in-chief

The entrepreneur will be let loose on America’s government

Elon Musk playing with a toy rocket, car, White House, bull and dog
image: Pablo Delcan

In 2017 Elon Musk branded Donald Trump a “con man” and “one of the world’s best bullshitters”. Now he is known at Mar-a-Lago as Uncle Elon and is in the president-elect’s inner circle. This week they watched a rocket launch together. The alliance of the world’s leading politician and its richest man creates a concentration of power both want to use to explosive effect: to slash bureaucracy, detonate liberal orthodoxies and deregulate in the name of growth.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Disrupter-in-chief”

From the November 23rd 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Leaders

Four test tubes in the shape of human figures, connected hand in hand, partially filled with a blue liquid. A dropper adds some liquid to the last figure

How to improve clinical trials

Involving more participants can lead to new medical insights

Container ship at sunrise in the Red Sea

Houthi Inc: the pirates who weaponised globalisation

Their Red Sea protection racket is a disturbing glimpse into an anarchic world


Donald Trump will upend 80 years of American foreign policy

A superpower’s approach to the world is about to be turned on its head


Rising bond yields should spur governments to go for growth

The bond sell-off may partly reflect America’s productivity boom

Much of the damage from the LA fires could have been averted

The lesson of the tragedy is that better incentives will keep people safe