“I love you Elon!” Upon hearing of his victory, Trump immediately thanked the “amazing” Musk, calling him a “genius” and a “star.” The world’s richest man, head of Tesla and SpaceX, has indeed played a major role in the return of the populist American president, funding his campaign (with at least $120 million) and offering his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to support him.

Born in South Africa 53 years ago, Elon Musk has epitomized the archetype of the tech prodigy since the turn of the millennium – charismatic and provocative. Even Hollywood was captivated, drawing inspiration from this eccentric billionaire to create the character of Tony Stark in the Iron Man superhero films…

However, it’s easy to forget that, behind the casual look and wild projects, lies an egocentric libertarian. The Covid-19 pandemic pushed him further into conspiracy theories and extreme-right views, transforming him into a controversial and outrageous figure – closer to Tony Montana from Scarface (the famous 1983 gangster film by Brian De Palma, scripted by Oliver Stone) than to Iron Man! His alliance with the upcoming Trump administration is only set to amplify his excesses…

Future Evil Genius of Trump?

Elon Musk has won his bet. In reward for his loyal services, Trump will assign him significant political responsibilities. The re-elected president wants to entrust Musk with an “audit” to “reform the American government from the ground up.” This, given Musk’s libertarian convictions (a political mix of libertarian and neoliberal ideas), signals drastic cuts to federal agency budgets and sweeping deregulation. The world’s richest man is licking his lips, declaring that he is “eager to serve America.” Serve America or his own interests?

Trump’s victory caused Tesla’s stock price to jump by 13%, and Wall Street knows that the future of the car manufacturer is secured. This, evidently, was one of Musk’s goals. Trump – whose redneck voter base loves diesel-guzzling, roaring pickup trucks – had once promised to “end the electric car on day one” to “save the American car industry from annihilation.” Now, he claims to be “ready for electric cars” … Tesla is therefore likely to keep its tax credits, while its Chinese (and European) competitors will face heavy taxes.

That is not all: as the head of SpaceX, Musk intends, with Trump’s support, to send a staffed mission to Mars by 2028… Finally, Musk could use his close relationship with Vladimir Putin, whom he regularly communicates with, to help Trump.

Bullied Teenager in Pretoria

Elon Musk was already the richest man in the world, but he has become one of the most powerful as well… Born in 1971 in Pretoria, he is the son of Errol Musk, an engineer with mining interests in Zambia, and Maye Haldeman, a nutritionist and former model of Canadian descent. He grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, but on the “right” side of the racial divide. After his parents’ divorce, Elon isolated himself and read extensively, up to two books a day on a variety of subjects. He became passionate about early computers. At the age of 12, he coded a video game and sold it to a magazine. However, in school, “nerds” like him were rarely popular: a group of bullies harassed him, beat him up, threw him down the stairs, and sent him to the emergency room. One day, while hiding from his tormentors, his “best friend” betrayed him and handed him over to the bullies. These traumatic experiences likely fueled his drive for success: the need to prove himself, to secure and control an environment that he once felt powerless in.

At 17, Elon took advantage of his mother’s Canadian nationality to move to Ontario to study. He denies benefiting from his father’s wealth: “I left for Canada with a backpack and a suitcase of books.” He then earned a scholarship to study in Pennsylvania. Visionary, he was already anticipating the potential of what Bill Clinton would later call “information highways” – the internet. In 1995, he dropped out of school to co-found a software startup, Zip2. Compaq bought it in 1999 for over $300 million! With his share of the proceeds, Musk founded the first virtual bank: X.com. For this, he needed a reliable payment solution, and partnered with a startup working on this: PayPal. This turned out to be a brilliant move: in 2002, Musk made a huge profit when eBay bought PayPal for… $1.5 billion! At 30, he was a millionaire. He invested his fortune to pursue his wildest dreams. In 2002, this sci-fi fan ventured into space exploration with SpaceX. His brilliant idea was to reduce costs by recovering the first stage of rockets -previously used only once. SpaceX put its first satellite into orbit in 2008 and, since 2012, has been resupplying the International Space Station.