Europeans Dealing with 2 Right-Wing Egomaniacs in the US

At the summit meeting last week, EU heads of state discussed, among other issues, how they should deal with future U.S. President Donald Trump. The 27 leaders may have come up short on that, because it increasingly appears that, in addition to the president and his vice president, Sen. JD Vance, it looks like a third person is positioning himself to be in the mix at the top of the government. Elon Musk, the richest man on earth and whom Trump has tasked with optimizing government operations, seems to be laying out as wide an operations field as possible even before things get started. The fact that he inserted himself so aggressively into the budget negotiations in Congress and threatened representatives with doing everything possible to prevent their reelection if they didn’t concede to Trump’s directions is anything but trifling. But it fits the disruptive approach that the new U.S. president wants to take as his way of governing. All of that does not bode well. First and foremost for the U.S., but also for every nation that prefers to interact with each other in a rules-based global order.

People like Trump and Musk shape the U.S. economy and with it, to some extent, how the country’s social services function. They try or have already tried (see X, formerly Twitter) to bring the media under their control. Now, they are preparing for the next strike: the political system. Trump is largely populating federal executive agencies and other important institutions with compliant, inexperienced acolytes who will presumably only execute their office on-call and hold the post as long as they are useful to the president and don’t get in his way. Musk made clear once again in recent days what will be expected from members of the House of Representatives and the Senate — Republicans will have a majority in both chambers. But even during the past four years, Republican members of Congress have already positioned themselves according to Trump’s wishes on several occasions.

In addition, Musk is unlikely to regard his call-up to Trump’s inner circle, which also cost him a cool quarter of a billion dollars in campaign donations, as limited to trimming down the government according to principles of economic liberalism. He will probably also want to shape the political decision-making process much in the manner of a CEO, which is also likely to please Trump. Both already have an authoritarian streak, although Musk has made it even more clear recently with his claims that only the far right Alternative for Germany party can save that country, where he stands politically: namely, on the right.

It’s no use betting that maybe even Washington does not have enough room for two egomaniacs like Trump and Musk, or that their desire for recognition could drive the two apart. One will be left standing for the next four years. But even if Europeans have to focus on the master in the White House, since his choices alone are what count, they also need to keep a close eye on the other one. We should not underestimate Musk’s influence on Trump, who is a generation older.