Every five minutes, it seems there’s a sensational headline about Elon Musk’s “unchecked power,” and “aggressive incursion into the federal government.” Some have even declared that “Elon Musk Is President.” Apparently, he is “hacking democracy” by intervening in European politics, and causing “chaos” by slashing government agencies and barging into the Treasury’s payment system.
Musk’s economic power
Musk is the richest man alive, and thereby, one of the most powerful. His net worth is not primarily dollars in a bank, it’s the value of shares in his companies and other financial securities. This gives Musk power that no amount of cash can: he owns and controls production at multiple gigantic, high-tech companies.
He owns X (formerly Twitter) and uses it as a soapbox to spread whatever ideas he likes, giving “advice” to European governments, promoting right-wing parties like AfD and Reform UK, and even calling for leadership change in Britain.
The bourgeois press call him an enemy of democracy, but Musk claims he’s saving freedom of speech. Under capitalism, this always means the capitalists’ freedom to shape and manipulate public opinion. He’s doing what media tycoons have always done—only he does it personally rather than paying journalists to do it for him.
SpaceX and Starlink
One of Musk’s biggest assets is SpaceX, the world’s foremost rocket launcher. Competing companies are booked out years in advance, so state and private aerospace companies, including NASA and the Pentagon, must use SpaceX if they plan on launching anything this decade.
Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, is a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX. He’s used this vertically-integrated monopoly to launch thousands of satellites. Two-thirds of all satellites currently in space are Starlink. It’s the only complete low-earth orbit (LEO) constellation—cheaper and more robust than older geostationary networks.
Musk’s monopoly over LEO technology put him in a commanding position at the start of the Ukraine War. One hour before Russia invaded, Ukraine lost access to its geostationary satellite internet due to cyberattacks. Artillery destroyed ground-based internet infrastructure, effectively blacking out the country. This was a major blow to hospitals, schools, journalists, government, and the military.
Only Starlink could provide connectivity. Musk, always looking for opportunities to play the hero, swooped in and donated Starlink services to Ukraine—though now, the Pentagon pays him millions to keep providing the service. For nearly three years, Musk has held Ukraine’s ability to connect to the internet in the palm of his hand. It is he who dictates when and where Starlink services will be available. He has even participated in dramatic international diplomacy for the whole world to see on Twitter. Even Zelensky relies on Starlink to broadcast to the outside world.
America is losing the tech race
Once upon a time, America had massive resources to invest in space technology. While the USSR launched the first object and living being into orbit, America could boast the first man on the moon.
After the Soviet Union’s fall, the US imperialists were dominant and thought they could impose their “rules-based order” on nearly all other countries. They covered up their bullying with stories about “spreading democracy” and “protecting freedom.”
This couldn’t last forever—US imperialism’s tentacles are overstretched and too expensive to sustain. As a world system, capitalism is in decline. For decades, American bankers and politicians covered this up by increasing credit and the money supply, but this also had its limits—and prepared even worse crises. Meanwhile, China and Russia have risen as serious contenders which the US cannot defeat head-on.
America is now losing the technology race to China. DeepSeek has disrupted the American monopoly on AI, but the ground started slipping earlier than that. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Critical Technology Tracker,
The US led in 60 of 64 technologies in the five years from 2003 to 2007, but in the most recent five years (2019–2023) is leading in seven. China led in just three of 64 technologies in 2003–2007 but is now the lead country in 57 of 64 technologies in 2019–2023. [our emphasis]
In the new space race, Starlink is in the lead. But the Chinese are planning their own LEO constellation and fighting Musk for Latin American markets. China’s BYD Auto has already surpassed Tesla as the world’s top seller of electric vehicles.
Chinese technology companies leaped ahead thanks to huge government investment. America is no longer able to muster similar funds, since it has been depleting itself trying to dominate the entire world. National debt now stands at over $36 trillion. As a result, the US relies on private individuals like Musk to invest in innovation. Musk’s outsized economic power is actually a sign of American imperialism’s increasing weakness.
Musk’s political power
Ever since Trump hired him as a “special government employee,” Musk has enjoyed serious political clout. While it’s true Musk was not elected, Trump certainly was—by millions of Americans who want to see the establishment destroyed.
That’s exactly what Musk is attempting. As he put it, “The people voted for major governmental reform and that’s what the people are going to get. That’s what democracy is about.”
A historical shift is underway: the collapse of Western liberalism. Across the world, people increasingly see the liberals’ fig leaves of “democracy” and “freedom” for what they are: lies to cover up crisis and austerity.
Voters are casting liberals aside and replacing them with the only visible force promising a way out—right-wing demagogues. This is why the ex-liberal Musk has embraced right populism, and other tech billionaires have followed his lead.
However, while Musk’s actions are certainly brazen, the rule of the billionaires is old news. The wealthiest bankers and capitalists long ago fused with the imperialist state and have been using it to advance their interests—no matter which party is in power.
They offshore factories to exploit cheaper labor, give loans and “aid” with strings attached, train and arm mercenaries to physically crush revolutions that threaten to expropriate private property, and try to bomb into submission any country that dares resist them.
The headlines say Musk is tearing up the constitution. In a sense, he is. The constitution is a relic of the period of capitalism’s rise. The founding fathers covered up the interest of the propertied classes with concepts like “checks and balances.” Musk is ripping off the mask and exposing what is underneath: the ruling class’s naked self-interest.
The limits of Musk’s power
Musk has experimented with fascist salutes on TV. Does that mean we are heading for an authoritarian takeover? No matter his personal tastes, Musk just doesn’t have that power. A fascist dictatorship requires mobilizing masses of enraged petty-bourgeois—a class that is weaker than ever, in both size and economic importance—to physically smash the working class and its organizations.
If Musk tried that, he would have to deal with the largest, most powerful working class that has ever existed in America. It is enraged and getting ready to move. What we need to prepare for is not a defensive struggle against fascism, but an all-out offensive against the entire capitalist system.
Millions of working-class Americans have illusions in demagogues like Musk who promise prosperity. But when Musk and Trump fail to deliver, workers will search for another route to stop their eroding standards of living. At a certain stage, class struggle will erupt on a scale never seen before.
As Plekhanov explains in “On the Role of the Individual in History”:
Influential individuals can change the individual features of events and some of their consequences, but they cannot change their general trend, which is determined by other forces.
Musk wants to be a hero. Personal descriptions often highlight his “Messiah complex”—his need to be the center of attention and win kudos for fixing the world’s biggest problems. Among other things, he’s declared his intention to save humanity by investing in sustainable energy and colonizing Mars.
We will be our own heroes
But a hero is someone who can carry out historical necessity. The greatest social need of humanity is to develop the productive forces, which are being strangled by private property and the nation-state. This is the root of the crisis that has been unfolding over decades.
No capitalist can be a hero to humanity—because the historical need is to wrest production from individuals like Musk and place it in the hands of the international working class.
This means international proletarian revolution. We, the working class, must be our own heroes. But in order to wield our power, we have to be united behind a revolutionary leadership and program. It’s the RCI’s job to train up advanced workers and youth in Marxism and organize them into the revolutionary party that will help the working class conquer power worldwide.