By Arya Vaishnavi
Jan 01, 2025
Discussing what Trump's coming administration could look like, Snyder said that it could prove to be damaging to the future president's relationship with Musk.
Donald Trump's incoming administration would be heavily influenced by his biggest supporter, Elon Musk, according to a renowned Yale historian. In an interview with The Guardian published Wednesday, Timothy Snyder issued a warning for the president-elect's friends and supporters that the Tesla CEO is the “big guy” on whom Trump is dependent for money.
FILE - President-elect Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to watch SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lift off for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Nov. 19, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP, File)(AP)Historian explains how Trump could be ‘dependent’ on Musk in his coming administration
Calling Trump the “little guy,” Snyder explained that “Musk is a big guy when it actually comes to having money.” “And I think if you were a friend of Trump, you would be worried,” the author, who is known for bestselling books like On Tyranny (2017) and On Freedom (2024),
Discussing what Trump's second term at the White House could look like, Snyder said that it could prove to be damaging to the future president's relationship with Musk. “I think we overestimate Trump and we underestimate Musk,” he said.
“People can’t help but think that Trump has money, but he doesn’t. He’s never really had money,” the historian went on. “He’s never even really claimed to have money. His whole notion is that you have to believe that he has money.”
Snyder pointed out that Trump has “never been able to pay his own debts.” “He’s never been able to finance his own campaigns,” he continued, adding, “Musk, with an amount of money that was meaningless to him, was able to finance Trump’s campaign, essentially.”
‘Trumpomuskovia’
The historian further highlighted the opposing views about government funding and immigration policies within the Republican Party. “All the threats that Trump is now going to issue – ‘I’m going to primary people, I’m going to sue people’ – Musk is going to pay for that, not Trump. And when Trump needs money for anything, he’s going to be asking Musk,” he said.
“Unless Trump breaks it off right now, he’s going to be in this kind of dependent relationship for the rest of the way, because you get used to people giving you money … and I think if you were a friend of Trump, you would be worried,” Snyder warned.
In light of the “dependency position” that Trump could face should Musk's influence grow on him, “Trumpomuskovia” seems a fitting name for the president-elect's second term at the White House. “I was going to call it Muskotrumpovia, because I think Musk is a more important person, but Trumpomuskovia had a nicer ring to it,” Snyder said.
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