, Columnist
Today's Robber Barons Hide in Plain Sight
Elon Musk and fellow billionaires are flouting their influence.
Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vice President-elect JD Vance at a football game in December.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
The looming US presidential inauguration casts a long shadow. Not the least important uncertainty that feeds the fears of many concerns the role of Donald Trump intimate Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.
Musk is even more notorious than the president-to-be for reckless speaking, not least about Britain, for which he seems to have conceived a weirdly violent hostility. He characterizes our country as “a tyrannical police state” and believes we’re “going full Stalin,” while predicting “civil war is inevitable.”