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Elon Musk - Useful Idiot [1]

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Date: 2025-04-23

Elon Musk is likely to go down as the most unpopular political figure in recent memory (and not just in the US). But the thing is, he isn’t actually a politician, nor does he even seem to have an official role in the government agency (DOGE) that he supposedly runs. For the past two years (starting with his purchase of X and introduction of the alleged Twitter Files scandal), Musk has been rapidly squandering decades of adulation and goodwill in the press and among the public that came with the relative successes of his fan-boy companies (Telsa, SpaceX & Starlink, Neuralink, etc.). That erosion of goodwill just led to a 71% reduction in Tesla profit in the 1st quarter of 2025 and protests in Tesla showrooms all across the nation. While Musk is still likely the richest person on Earth, it’s hard to think of a more dramatic reversal of fortune than his (from hero to Bond Villain faster than an EV accelerates from 0 to 60).

And as strange as his story is — it’s actually wackier than you may realize. At the same time that he has acted as the Lightning Rod or Fall Guy for the Dismantling of the United States Government (in a role that he was never officially appointed to in agency which was never chartered to do any of what it’s now doing), he has helped Donald Trump retain much of his popularity while conducting what is likely the least popular set of reforms ever attempted. It also seems that he has even helped Trump to improve his control over his own party. Fully 36% of the GOP now identify themselves as MAGA as opposed to 27% in 2024. Holy Mackerel, Batman — how the heck did that happen?

How can we characterize this phenomena? And of course, the larger question may be — was this a deliberate plan or an accident? Did Trump use Musk to do all of the dirty work and come off scot-free? Now Trump may have gone and ruined all this with his wacky Liberation Day stunt, (something that even Musk seems to disapprove of), but otherwise it seems as though it’s been a pretty effective screen or shield. Trump was sometimes referred to as the “Teflon Don” before, but perhaps we need to change that now to the Elon Don? Back in the day, Lenin had a phrase that he used to describe this type of situation — it is called “Useful Idiot.”

A useful idiot or useful fool is a pejorative description of a person, suggesting that the person thinks they are fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their actions, and who does not realize they are being manipulated by the cause's leaders or by other political players.[1][2] The term was often used during the Cold War in the Western bloc to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and psychological manipulation.[1] wikipedia

Elon Musk has clearly been manipulated:

To spend many billions of dollars buying a social media platform in order to turn it into a Far Right cesspool.

Contribute 100’s of millions of dollars to ultra-conservative causes and campaigns across the globe.

To agree to be placed in a government role that isn’t a real role (potentially then being stuck with all of the blame and none of the credit).

To risk his entire business empire by advocating ever-more extreme positions and candidates (culminating perhaps with his NAZI salute to Trump).

Who precisely maneuvered him into doing all of this (whether it was other conservative politicians or just Far Right blogs / sites) is still unclear. Whether he knows he’s being manipulated or thinks he’s in total control of his destiny (leading the war against the Woke Mind Virus) is also unclear and perhaps that part really doesn’t matter.

The Bottom Line is though that Elon Musk has served as Trump’s Useful Idiot in multiple ways already and is poised to do so again in new ways even if he leaves the position that he was never actually appointed to (which he now says he’s going to do, but won’t say when). This means that he particularly dangerous. It also likely means that the media and even Democrats have fallen for the ruse to a large extent and have yet to come up with a better strategy to counter this type of deflection. The reality is that both Musk and Trump need to be held accountable in a situation where they are both skillfully positioning themselves to evade that accountability while a lot of real world damage is being done. How to hold them both accountable is the question of the hour.

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