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The $1 Trillion Threat to Democracy on the Horizon

Yay capitalism!

Jonathan V. Last's avatar
Jonathan V. Last
Apr 28, 2026
∙ Paid
Elon Musk and Donald Trump on the South Portico of the White House on March 11, 2025. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Elon, Again

Remember Elon Musk? He’s the visionary tech alchemist who managed to create the most valuable automobile company in the world without selling many automobiles and, on the strength of this accomplishment, was allowed to spend several unsupervised months destroying large swaths of the federal government.

This was before he accused the president of the United States of being a pedophile. Then claimed he was leaving the Republican party and starting a new party. Then went back to being friends with the president he said was a pedophile, and supporting Republican candidates and legislation.

And all of this was before auto sales in Musk’s car business fell off a cliff.

Anyway: You might have thought that we had the luxury of forgetting about Elon Musk. That he had shat the bed, blown up his company, and pissed off his political patrons, forever. That he would remain part of the national furniture, but safely removed from the realm of social consequence.

Wrong.

Today we’re going to talk about how Elon Musk fucked up Tesla, how the market has rewarded him for the mistake, and how we are a few weeks away from Musk becoming even wealthier—and more dangerous—than anyone could have feared.

All as we are about to roll into the midterm elections.

America is about to find out what happens when it is home to an illiberal trillionaire.

Get your pitchforks ready.

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