Donald Trump may be the president-elect, but he got there by elevating Elon Musk practically to the level of co-running mate. The richest man in the world – who is tens of billions of dollars richer since Trump’s win – quickly eclipsed Vice President-elect JD Vance in the MAGA hierarchy. On the campaign trail, Musk merged the roles of mega-donor, surrogate, campaign strategist, celebrity endorser, and right-wing social-media influencer to a degree that made the Republican ticket as much about Musk and his reactionary, tech-futurist ambitions as it was about Trump and his doomer portrait of a rotten America overrun by migrants and crime. ….more
