Even as technocrats have always played a proactive role in policy decisions, as a well-funded lobby impacting both domestic and foreign policy of countries, with tech billionaires possessing charismatic influence over masses by virtue of their (monetary) success, capturing the aspirations of the information society, technocrats act as a pressure group. Elon Musk is a rare example of a technocrat in state office, with open and direct access to power, and a clear intent to make his case in world affairs.
Elon Musk’s role in molding U.S. foreign policy has been an outcome of his close and cordial relationship with President Donald J. Trump, vis-à-vis his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. A billionaire “visionary” entrepreneur, known for his successes in Tesla, SpaceX and the recent takeover of Twitter, Musk has increasingly attempted to carve out a station in geopolitics beyond his role in the technology market – a global figure transcending boundaries. The MAGA (Make America Great Again) has pushed for a ‘small state and big companies’ approach, and this now stands exemplified under Musk’s leadership of DOGE. Far more notorious is Musk’s support of endorsement of the European far-right. Musk’s bold X livestream session with Alice Weidel, leader of German’s far-right neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany (AfD) has raised suspicion of his meddling in domestic politics beyond the U.S.A.. Both the European Commission and the German government showed displeasure over possible unfair algorithms in X that might give AfD in the February 2025 German elections.
While deregulation has been the trope of the globalized state, the meteoric rise of a South African-born, U.S.-based ‘richest man on earth’ may have soothed his way into the White House, but his entry as a global actor, is more definitely a disrupter in international politics. Musk’s personal foreign policy can be located in his populist inclinations, but detrimentally, he has been picking fights and meddling in the elections with world leaders. Diplomat Musk seems to have also been utilizing his proximity to world leaders, as an apparently influential aid to President Trump, to further his corporate interests, fostering strategic relations with world leaders, like Javier Milei of Argentina, Meloni of Italy and Narendra Modi of India, whom he has publicly supported. While he had already been leveraging X and SpaceX’s Starlink to barter greater privileges for his business interests around the world, his current office has placed him as a gatekeeper to the most powerful man and his country in the world.
Musk’s role in the ideological saliency of the MAGA crowd in the White House and its foreign policy is also evident. However, Musk has been more disruptive and divisive than effective. Musk as a ‘solo global disruptor’ has become the Trump’s face for Trump’s relation with both technology capitalists and U.S. businesses abroad. Musk’s proximity to Trump and having his ear allows him to carry out as a spokesperson, liaison and go-between in Trump’s diplomacy. Reinforcing the pluralist consideration of fragmented sovereignty of states, both domestically and internationally, Elon Musk fits its standard definition of a power actor in international politics, driving a sense of déjà vu from House of Cards’, “Power is a lot like real estate. It’s all about location, location, location. The closer you are to the source, the higher your property value.” The line between the person and the office is blurred, as it becomes difficult to differentiate between Musk’s comments as Musk the individual or Musk, as a representative of the U.S. government, and interpret whether to take his support of the AfD as his personal sympathies or the official position of the Trump administration. Musk’s heavy criticism of the EU’s institutional censorship has been seen to expand his own personal interests, positioning himself, and his owned platform X as a global defender of free speech, a “rally against rules.” While President Trump has increasingly shown a taste for a personalized sense of foreign policy, with an evident distaste for a multilateral rules-based global order, his official capacity as President affords him a democratic mandate to shape and shift U.S. foreign policy, Musk lacks not only the legitimacy but also as a private actor he cannot be held accountable before the public. This is a more grave instance of the irresponsive powers of an actor driving a “personal foreign policy,” especially so as his own role in government has come under critical scrutiny in courts.
What remains unclear, however, is how long the equations between Musk and President Trump will stray clear of their divergent views on China. Musk has deep financial interests in the Chinese market, ones that may bear brunt of a fallout of a second U.S.-China trade war.
He has previously voiced a liking for favorable labor laws, infrastructure, space program, and green energy initiatives in China, as well as vocally supported the ‘peaceful strategy’ of “one country, two systems” with regard to Taiwan. This may spark differences down the line.
Musk has emerged as a secondary, yet competing center of diplomacy, even as he took on calls with world leaders, acting as a de facto liaison between them and Trump’s pre-inauguration team. This creates a confused line of authority. While it is the Secretary of State, ambassadors and official envoys who are the vocals of U.S. foreign policy, despite the DOGE being a domestic budgeting office, Musk despite not holding any diplomatic status, has increasingly inserted himself into the Trump administration policy process. His ownership of X places him at the heart of the Trump presidency’s vocalization, blurring lines between who actually is the speaker and in what capacity. Musk’s active participation in foreign policy has however been received with great fervor in terms of his expertise in technological diplomacy, expanding U.S. influence into previously untampered arenas of traditional diplomacy, with Starlink providing a clear path to the private space industry and as a U.S. sphere of influence. Elon Musk holds an ‘outsized influence’ in the second trump administration, with MAGA approval, the President’s confidence, an economic cloud to sustain his rise, Musk seems to enjoy unfettered political power in recreating the world order in his image and liking. While the Wall Street Journal had declared his capacity to determine the “fate of nations” in 2023 itself, it is now, that he has become a transnational actor influencing the future course of global events. His talks with the Iranian ambassador in November 2024, predating Trump’s inauguration into office, suggest that his position is less than a product of constitutional office, thus equally so, his influence cannot be institutionally limited. Musk is thus a private technocrat in the process of becoming a global actor of power.
