With a sports car that somersaults through the air, Elon Musk is back in the headlines for technological daring — but his plunge into politics and his return to US President Donald Trump’s side mean the world’s richest man no longer enjoys the unqualified praise of years past.
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man → somersault → years
“All the things that we were promised since the 1950s, of space travel and flying cars… he’s doing all of those things,” said Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida.
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Selepak → promise → Florida
“And yet we’re not giving it the attention, we’re not giving it the awe that it probably truly deserves,” he added.
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he → give → that
In recent weeks, Musk has seemed to be everywhere at once.
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Musk → seem → weeks
On Sept 28, SpaceX’s Starship megarocket reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink satellites before splashing down in the Pacific — a milestone for the rocket central to Musk’s Mars ambitions.
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megarocket → reach → ambitions
Musk’s central role in geopolitics has also been on display, with Ukraine complaining of disruptions to the Starshield satellite communications system its military relies on.
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military → complain → system
Even the platform formerly known as Twitter is enjoying something of a renaissance, with Musk’s X now the go-to social media app for Silicon Valley insiders and the main marketplace for talk about artificial intelligence.
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X → know → intelligence
But despite his continued success, Musk’s unrelenting commitment to right-wing politics has taken a toll.
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commitment → take → toll
No image captured that shift more than Musk brandishing a chainsaw on stage in February 2025 — a gift from Argentine President Javier Milei — as a symbol of his drive to slash the US government as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the early months of Trump’s second term.
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Musk → capture → term
Through DOGE, Musk’s allies fanned out across federal agencies, driving cuts that effectively dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and contributed to a net loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
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that → fan → jobs
‘National treasure’
That combative imagery has been matched by Musk’s posts on X, where hardline anti-immigration views and right-wing conspiracy theories sit alongside posts about rocket launches and Tesla robotaxis.
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views → match → launches
Now Musk is back in Trump’s good graces, after a spectacular falling-out that followed his exit from DOGE in May 2025.
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that → follow → May
Last week, Trump presented Musk with the nation’s top science medal, calling him a “national treasure” and “our modern-day Thomas Edison”.
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Trump → present → him
The renewed relationship comes as Musk has spent at least $276 million on Republican political campaigns ahead of next month’s midterm elections, in which the president’s party is expected to struggle.
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party → renew → which
Of that, $158m is funding a massive advertising campaign in Texas, Musk’s home state, where the Republican candidate is trailing in the polls.
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candidate → fund → polls
For left-leaning pundits, Musk is now increasingly seen as an agent of Trump and the tech billionaires rather than a technology savant working for the good of humanity.
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Musk → lean → humanity
That opposition plays out in ‘Musk’, a four-hour documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney now in US theatres, which traces the life and career of the South Africa-born billionaire.
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which → play → billionaire
“I once described him as somebody who can jump off the edge of a cliff and invent a parachute on the way down.
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who → describe → way
I think he thrives on chaos,” Musk’s first wife Justine Musk, who features prominently in the film, told podcaster Kara Swisher.
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who → think → Swisher
Yet, she added, “I always assume that there’s a method to his madness,” and many of his loudest actions may in fact be deflections and “sleight of hand”.
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many → add → hand
Few entrepreneurs depend as heavily on the federal government as Musk does.
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Musk → depend → government
SpaceX — which went public in June in the largest initial public offering in history — earns billions of dollars a year from Nasa and Pentagon contracts, while Tesla’s bet on robotaxis hinges on how quickly regulators allow driverless cars onto US roads.
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regulators → go → roads
Seen in that light, Musk’s millions for Republicans may be less a political conversion than an investment.
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millions → see → investment
The Aporia
