A former member of the White House staff stated on Tuesday that the relationship between billionaire Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who is a former president, convicted felon, and the presumptive nominee for the Republican presidential nomination, is more comparable to that of a Russian oligarch relationship with a dictator than it is to that of an American businessman relationship with a political candidate.
After the Wall Street Journal revealed that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, will deposit $45 million each month into a super PAC that supports Donald Trump, Van Jones, who had previously served as an official in the administration of former President Barack Obama, issued a warning about the potential impact that Musk's millions could have, RawStory reported.
"It's scary. What is Donald Trump going to do to reward someone like an Elon Musk — he's has already given him a vice president — what's next?" Jone stated.
According to Jones, the "radicalization" of Musk and some of his fellow billionaires in Silicon Valley can be traced back to calls for equal treatment from women and people of color working in the technology business. Jones characterized the response as fundamentally infantile.
"They're just so hurt and offended by some of what they call 'woke ideology' — people wanting more equality and fairer treatment when it comes to race and gender. They're now willing to throw massive amounts of money — it's some kind of, like, almost an anti-woke vendetta,” Jones went on.
Jones also expressed concerns about the future of social media, pointing out that both men possess platforms that foster political speech and problematic speech.
As a result of Musk's leadership, X has sparked uproar among global nations concerned that it supports anti-democracy militias by disseminating false information. Due to the "fake news" that it enables the former president to disseminate, Trump's Truth Social has been criticized.
"Is X going to wind up buying Truth? Is that a part of the deal? You're looking at more like a Russian-style oligarchy that's beginning to develop…It's quite disturbing,” Jones further stated.