Writer Greg Steinmetz titled his 2015 book chronicling the life of Sixteenth Century German financier Jacob Fugger, “The Richest Man Who Ever Lived.” Whether a biography centuries from now will describe Elon Musk in similarly grandiose terms, as his contemporaries we will never know. Suffice to say, however, that this richest of men in this first quarter of the 21st Century will have left his mark as one of the era’s most influential individuals.
Elon Musk actually shares much in common with Jacob Fugger, notwithstanding their very different geopolitical worlds. Both Fugger and Musk are risk-takers. Both are bold and self-assured. As noted by Fugger’s biographer, the German money lender was bold to the point of being imperious.
Even more to the point perhaps, while Fugger is described by Steinmetz as one of the true architects of modern capitalism, Musk is one its most apt students, having parlayed a sound upbringing in South Africa into a business empire the components of which touch virtually every sector of government and business around the world (and beyond); including most notably the social media giant X (formerly Twitter), Tesla as the world’s preeminent proponent of electric-powered vehicles, and SpaceX which is leading the long-overdue revitalization of America’s space effort.
Fugger in his time was despised by components of what we would today accurately describe as The Establishment, especially the then-massively powerful Roman Catholic Church. In fact, Fugger’s exercise of his financial prowess and power brought the Pope to his knees and forced the Church to reverse centuries of dogma and permit what had previously been officially taboo – charging interest for loans.
In our time, Musk has come to be hated by elements of our Establishment, most particularly the mainstream media and the Democrat Party. So fearful of Musk has the Democrat establishment become that his budding friendship with Donald Trump is seen as politically sinister and evil.
For Democrats, the notion that a private citizen – Elon Musk, for example — would dare to have a say in whether our country’s representative legislature should continue its spendthrift ways unimpeded, has caused conniptions among Washington’s Democrat doyens. Far-left-wing Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is demanding answers to what she apparently views as an improper and unethical – if not worse – relationship between the multi-billionaire businessman and the President-elect.
House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York sputtered last week that Musk, in cahoots with “Extreme MAGA Republicans,” is controlling not only Trump but Speaker Mike Johnson. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in by claiming that Trump was Musk’s “puppet.”
The Lefts new strategy is to try and sow dissension between President Trump and Elon Musk.
They want to make Trump look weak by creating a narrative that says Musk is really in charge so that Trump will either break with Musk to silence the rumor, or fire musk out of jealousy. pic.twitter.com/IJhUO5Wx2J
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 22, 2024
Few, if any policy leaders jumped off the Trump juggernaut plowing headlong toward Inauguration Day in reaction to the name-calling by the likes of Warren, Jeffries, and Pelosi.
For a political party that now goes berserk at the thought of a Republican president-elect who listens to advisers or counselors who might also themselves possess a degree of public policy influence, the Democrat Party has had its share of chief executives who clearly listened to such persons. President Franklin Roosevelt had his Harry Hopkins, Harry Truman his Dean Acheson, JFK his Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara, proto-Democrat Nixon his Henry Kissinger, and Bill Clinton his Paul Begala.
Indeed, one of the most notable “advisers” to a sitting U.S. President was none other than Edith Wilson, wife of then-President Woodrow Wilson, who by all accounts now confirmed, actually ran the presidency for several months in 1919-1920 after her husband was severely debilitated by a stroke.
Anyone who knows Donald Trump, or not personally knowing him at least has observed how he operates, understands that he is the consummate marketeer, and that forcing him to do someone else’s bidding is a doomed undertaking. Both he and Musk are offspring of the marketplace, and both understand what a marketplace is and what it should be.
So, spare us the faux anguish over the fact that President-elect Trump actually heeds the advice of one of the world’s most prescient and bold business leaders of the early 21st Century. Remember also it could be a lot worse. Thank your lucky stars Trump is not listening to the likes of Disney’s uber-woke CEO Bob Iger, Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun, or Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and currently is the president of the National Rifle Association.