Two weeks ago, Time magazine selected Donald Trump as its 2024 “Person of the Year.” A week later, the Financial Times did the same, bestowing on Trump the identical title, “Person of the Year.” Time pointed out that Trump’s “rebirth” was “unparalleled in American history.”The Financial Times cited a longtime Trump acolyte, Roger Stone, who proclaimed, “We are living in the age of Trump.”
But their selection is silly! Trump Person of the Year in 2024?! Give me a break. All the man managed to do in the last twelve months was to get reelected president of the United States. OK, I’ll grant it was not a small success. But what he’ll do when he moves back into the White House, not to mention what he’ll be able to accomplish, remains uncertain. Besides, that’s next year, not this one.
My selection as Leader of the Year 2024 is obvious. So glaringly, blindly, obvious, that I’m sure you’ve guessed it. Elon Musk.
Some of you might remember from previous years that my selection for Leader of the Year is based on only one criterion – impact. No matter if the impact is positive or negative, good or bad, the single question that pertains is which leader was most impactful during the twelve months preceding.
Musk is an exceedingly rare bird – a leader who leads in more than one lane. He is so singular a leader that not only does he lead in more than one lane, he does so simultaneously.
Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change in business – and in politics. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change in the United States – and around the world. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change because he is (by far) the richest man in the world – and because he has one of the world’s biggest megaphones. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change in technology – and in industry. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change on earth – and in space. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change in human intelligence – and in artificial intelligence. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change because he is exceedingly ambitious – and because he is exceedingly aggressive. Musk is an immensely powerful agent of change because he is a genius – and an activist.
In 2024 Elon Musk decided to make the reelection of Donald Trump a pet project. I do not claim that Musk is single handedly responsible for Trump’s triumph. I do claim that Musk’s support was important, very important. He poured over a quarter of a billion dollars into Republican campaign coffers which made Musk the single largest underwriter of a political campaign ever. Moreover, he used his name, and his fame, and X, which he owns, regularly and relentlessly to make Trump’s case. Finally, like Trump, Musk’s relationship to the truth is, shall we say, fluid. This came in handy as Musk regularly repeated whatever Trump’s lies, first and foremost that he, not Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential election.
As Musk greased Trump’s palm so Trump greased Musk’s. For weeks after the election Musk effectively took up residence at Mar-a-Lago, the president elect’s palace in Palm Beach. For weeks after the election Musk served as one of Trump’s closest advisers. For weeks after the election decisions were made about how officially to embed Musk in the machinery of government. And for weeks after the election Musk felt increasingly entitled to intrude not just on the workings of the executive branch but on those of the legislative one.
But does Musk need Trump to leave his stamp? Not at all. It helps that Musk now has an official role in Washington. That he, along with Vivek Ramasamy, has been anointed co-leader of the newly created “Department of Government Efficiency.” Still, it’s impossible to tell how that will go. Anyway, my point is, no matter. Musk’s fingerprints are already all over the federal government.
The New York Times describes his influence – his influence now, before Trump becomes president again – as “extraordinary, and extraordinarily lucrative.” An example: Musk’s rocket company, Space X, “effectively dictates” NASA’s rocket launch schedule. Another example: Musk’s companies have already been promised some $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 different federal agencies.
There is much about Musk that is not admirable. He has had 12 children with three different women and seems largely absent as both partner and father. He is known in recent years to have used drugs including LSD, cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy and mushrooms. He and Space X have reportedly repeatedly failed to comply with protocols aimed at protecting state secrets. He has a reputation as an erratic, excessively demanding and sometimes bullying employer. And now he is inserting himself, regularly and sometimes outrageously, into politics both at home and abroad. At home he posted over 150 times on X to demand that congressional Republicans reject a bipartisan spending deal crafted to avoid a government shutdown. And abroad he strongly aligned himself with Germany’s far-right party, the AfD, which has ties to neo-Nazis and has been classified by the German government as “confirmed extremist.” Notwithstanding, Musk posted to X, “Only the AfD can save Germany.”
Impossible to say for how long Musk’s now knee-deep involvement in domestic and foreign politics will last. But if it does not, no worries. He’s got plenty to keep him busy. His companies include but are not limited to 1) Tesla; 2) Space X; 3) X; 4) The Boring Company; 5) Neuralink; and 6) xAI.
You might not love or even like him. You might not admire or even respect him. But no matter. In 2024 no leader had as great an impact on the planet we inhabit than Elon Musk.