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Photo "Elon Musk" by Daniel Oberhaus on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Would Donald Trump have won reelection if not for the backing of the world’s richest man? We’ll never know. But that man, Elon Musk, gave Trump more than $130 million via his recently founded America PAC. Now, as Trump begins to staff his administration, Musk has more influence than anyone. It would be hard to argue that it wasn’t money well spent.
Musk’s influence is already apparent. He has hardly left Trump’s side since Election Day. And on Tuesday evening, he was announced as the head of a new government “department”—the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” a reference to a stale internet meme—with a broad, if also vague, remit to cut waste and transform the government.
Musk spent the final month of the campaign appearing constantly with Trump at rallies, where he jumped around onstage, told crowds he was “Dark MAGA” and, later, “Dark Gothic MAGA,” somehow managed to mess up the “USA” chant, and gave away $1 million checks to people who signed a pro-Trump petition. On...