This idea that Elon Musk has now "lost interest" in politics and governance misses the point. Those were never his interests. He has achieved the final deregulation of all his operations, a flurry of new government business, and an extra boost to his ego.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/elon-pledges-to-be-super-focused-on-x-tesla-247-is-he-done-with-doge
It's also a lie.
Both Peter Thiel and Charles Koch made similar promises, and then reneged.
It's a PR narrative to postpone blowback & extort the GOP.
The news outlets that disseminate corporate propaganda as "news" are acting as shills.
Peter Thiel used it to get JD Vance one heart attack away from the presidency.
https://fortune.com/2025/05/21/peter-thiel-silicon-valley-trump-administration-elon-musk-jd-vance/
https://www.thenerdreich.com/with-j-d-vance-on-trump-ticket-the-nerd-reich-goes-national/
Charles Koch used it to extort climate action rollbacks...
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... & the destruction of public lands.
https://energyandpolicy.org/chris-wright-energy-secretary-charles-koch/
https://time.com/7018266/trump-republicans-koch-network-2024/
Both Peter Thiel & Charles Koch used their threats of withholding campaign finance to get cronies embedded within the Trump's system of public corruption.
Just like Texas Gov Abbott does with his corrupt donors
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/18/greg-abbott-texas-fundraising-governor-donors/
Musk is still taking investment dollars from petrostate despots to perpetuate their agenda.
Musk is pivoting away from subsidies for...
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...cars & satellite surveillance systems to subsidies for military offensive weaponry & an Orwellian international state surveillance platform.
That money will still be used to advance election interference & public corruption.
https://newrepublic.com/post/195204/donald-trump-entire-speech-saudi-arabia-sucking-up
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/1/5/we-put-our-man-on-top-trump-said-on-mbs-book-claims
Mohammed bin Salman, Alwaleed bin Talal, and the despots of Qatar & UAE want to wage religious & oil wars, using US tech.
The 95-page report, “The Man Who Bought The World: Rights Abuses Linked to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Its Chairman, Mohammad bin Salman,” found that Saudi Arabia’s vast fossil fuel-derived state wealth is effectively controlled by one person, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Human Rights Watch found that the crown prince wields this enormous economic power in a largely arbitrary and highly personalized manner rather than for the Saudi people’s benefit and that the PIF is used to whitewash the Saudi government’s abuses.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/05/trump-and-the-crown-prince/682813/
Trump just sold oil oligarchs all the tools necessary for a modern world war, including nuclear.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/11/trump-says-he-fears-nuclear-weapons-so-why-is-he-making-them-more-popular-00278790
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/trump-admin-eager-to-hand-the-saudis-nuclear-secrets
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/donald-trump-saudi-arms-deal-veto
These nations will promptly forward this technology to Russia.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/defense-tech-startups/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/palantir-teams-shield-ai-ai-210015094.html
James Gleick
Nicole Parsons
