Elon Musk has become the ‘spiritual heir’ to Donald Trump for his populism, fan base and ability to spin ideas around his worldview, according to a Wall Street Journal columnist.
Musk and Trump are both entrepreneurs, provocative on social issues, politically incorrect and have built a populist following ‘through years of savvy use of Twitter-turned-X,’ according to Tim Higgins, whose writings specialize in Musk and his companies.
‘For many, Musk’s evolution from a green-energy techie to self-labeled chief troll officer has made the billionaire the spiritual heir to Trump’ only now ‘even more influential’ Higgins wrote.
Musk has, Higgins writes, mastered Trump’s ability to whip up a social media storm and fire up his fan base, citing an example from earlier this week in which the tech tycoon suggested corporate diversity efforts could threaten air travel safety.
‘It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,’ Musk wrote on his X platform on Tuesday, rearranging the abbreviation for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
Elon Musk has become the ‘spiritual heir’ to Donald Trump, according to a WSJ columnist
Musk also adopts Trumps gigantean self-confidence and bravado, Tim Higgins writes
During the election campaign of 2020, Trump signed an executive order against DEI initiatives such a racial sensitivity training and the teaching of critical race theory in federal institutions, which he described respectively as ‘malign ideology’ and ‘divisive, anti-American propaganda.’
Musk has adopted other rhetoric used by the former president including spreading fear about the impact of mass migration into the US.
Last week, Musk wrote on X that the government would start forcing Americans to house migrants in their homes after a Brooklyn school was closed for a day.
‘This is what happens when you run out of hotel rooms. Soon, cities will run out of schools to vacate,’ the Tesla CEO said.
Adding: ‘Then they will come for your homes.’
Musk’s post included a video showing migrant buses pulling up to the school on Tuesday evening after officials moved students to remote learning on Wednesday in order to provide shelter for the asylum seekers currently housed at the tent shelter at the Bennet Airfield.
There is no proof that any local government in the country has tried forcing people to house migrants in residential homes or has plans to do so.
Furthermore, Musk has followed Trump in spreading misinformation about the results of the 2020 election.
The former president refused to accept the results of the 2020 election
Musk has followed Trump in spreading misinformation about the results of the 2020 election
Last May he posted an article on then-Twitter which alleged that the contests was ‘bought by Mark Zuckerberg.’
Trump allies had pushed the unfounded idea that donations from the likes of Zuckerberg to a group called Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) amounted to partisan election interference.
Musk also adopts Trump’s gigantean self-confidence and bravado, Higgins writes.
In response to a recent Wall Street Journal report about Musk’s drug use sparking concerns among his board members and executives, Musk responded by saying he hadn’t failed any drug tests and highlighted the success of his businesses.
‘Whatever I’m doing, I should obviously keep doing it!’ he wrote on X.
The Republican pollster Frank Luntz finds that the two men are often compared and supported by the same cohort of people when he conducts focus groups.
‘The reaction of people [for both men] is, ‘Well, good for him, … I don’t always agree with what he says, I don’t necessarily like how he says it but I like what he’s doing, he is shaking things up,’ Luntz told the Journal.
Higgins goes on to say that Musk is seen by his base as the poster boy for the ‘primal American dream’ that because the US previously told ‘the king of England more than 200 years ago to essentially “go f— yourself,”’ it has paved the way for Musk doing the same with ‘the CEO of Disney.’
The supporters he has built see Musk as ‘an immigrant who, against great odds, gambled everything over and over again,’ who has gone on ‘to make it in America’ after hard work and tearing down elites.