Influence through money
Historian warns those around Trump about Musk: “A great man”
Updated on 02/01/2025 – 08:08 amReading time: 3 minutes
The relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk seems unbroken. A renowned US historian warns against underestimating the entrepreneur.
The closeness of the eccentric entrepreneur Elon Musk to President-elect Donald Trump is rare in American history. The powerful in the White House traditionally maintain their contacts with business bosses, some of whom also support the election campaigns with millions in donations. But so far, such an influential entrepreneur like Musk has massively intervened politically and hardly left the side of the elected president. After Trump’s election at the beginning of November, questions arose as to how long this friendship could last.
Now the renowned US historian Timothy Snyder has spoken out – with a warning to the Trump team. “Trump is a small man, and Musk is a big man when it comes to having money,” Snyder said. The best-selling author and professor at Yale University warned of a dispute between the two powerful men in an interview with the British “The Guardian”. He sees Elon Musk as the greater danger.
“I think we overestimate Trump and underestimate Musk,” said the 55-year-old. “Many people think Trump has money, but he doesn’t.” Trump never really had a lot of money; he relied on Musk’s money to finance his election campaign. Trump can only make threats against opponents because he has Musk to give him the money for possible lawsuits.
“If Trump doesn’t break it off right away, he’s going to stay in that kind of dependent relationship the rest of the way because you get used to people giving you money… and I think if you were a friend of Trump, you would “There’s a lot to worry about,” Snyder warned. At the end of December, Snyder had already spoken of a “mump regime,” a pun on the last names of Musk and Trump.
In November, the American political scientist Andrew Gawthorpe predicted an end to the “bromance” in an analysis. “Trump is an incredibly business-minded person who loves the power of the presidency and hates the idea of being taken advantage of. Eventually, he will grow tired of Musk and move on to the next shiny thing,” he wrote in an analysis. His guess: “JD Vance, Don Jr., Susie Wiles and a dozen others will be looking for a reason to stab Musk in the back.”
At the moment it doesn’t look like there will be a dispute between Trump and Musk. The future president demonstratively sided with Musk when he called for more foreign skilled workers – against the resistance of some Republicans and supporters of the MAGA movement.
Historian Snyder has already given the relationship a name: “I wanted to call it ‘Muskotrumpovia’ because I think Musk is a more important person, but ‘Trumpomuskovia’ sounded nicer.” But he also deliberately gave the term a Russian sound. The situation in the USA reminds him of the 1990s, when Boris Yeltsin, a wealthy but not rich president, sat in the Kremlin and was surrounded by young, ambitious oligarchs, says Snyder.
The author has written several books on the history of Russia. But one of his most famous works goes beyond the Kremlin. In “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” he describes his lessons from the 20th century and explains how modern societies can recognize and combat authoritarian tendencies.
