For the rift lines column for this week, Jon Allsop is filled with Jay Caspian Kang.
In January, Ezra Klein, New York Times Pillar writer, spoke on Podcast With Chris Hayes, MSNBC anchor, about attention, a topic on which Heiz has just written book. Calin Donald Trump “Sayed” in using and using attention, including the negative type, for his political advantage, and indicated that he had a “student” in Elon MuskWho was then on the threshold of Trump’s enthusiasm in the government. Klein said that the spouses were the most “rich” people on the face of the earth, and for the forgotten, these wealth may have become more important than his financial resources – a great demand, given that musk is the richest person in the world. Musk used some of these funds, in 2022, to acquire Twitter (is now called X), while many analysts mocked it as prices for the conflict, only to take advantage of the platform’s ability to unify attention to the tremendous political power. At the time of the Hayes and Klein conversation, it was inevitable. A few days later, Trump was opened, and Musk Raad Raad quickly stolen, and what appeared to be a biopsy regards In a march. He said it was not; Many of his critics, not to mention the superiority of the white outstanding, said it was. Perhaps it was the street mystery. Either way, people talked about it – a lot.
Things now look completely different. Last week, and analysis by Politico I found that Trump stopped mentioning musk in his positions on the social truth, and that musk has disappeared from the presidential explosions to raise funds, the media materials in the White House, and newsletters for Republican legislators as well. The news course has mostly moved from Musk’s messy Dodge a job To other stories, such as definitions and immigration. It was less everywhere in his feudal online: Times Find This musk has been published on x much less than it was in the first days of the administration, when it never stopped, Washington Pillars recently appreciation His conclusion found that he was publishing much less than politics. Last week, he said he was planning to reduce his spending on political campaigns. (“I do not currently see a reason.” Politico He wrote that he “started fading”; the Times Note that he moves to the “background of American policy”. Atlantic Ocean Created a story To “retreat and fall”. On Wednesday night, Musk suggested in a mail On X it leaves the government completely.
The gap between January and now may not be like all of this. For beginners, musk is barely out of sight. We know his claim that he will contact his political spending because he said a lot in interview with Bloomberg– One of the many outlets that have recently prevailed – and remains a personality in political stories about everything from a Federal investigation From the media monitoring group to the RepublicansBig, beautiful“Megabill, which he just criticized in CBS interview. Although it may spread frequently on X, it is still very active according to regular standards; Recently, he temporarily changed the show name to “Kekius Maximus” (once againAnd his image to one of his perception as an emperor. I noticed this when one of his posts appeared on my time line, which still has a troublesome habit in doing: a Screenshot From the title “retreat and fall”, it was commented on with an expressive expression of tears.
And until now musk He is Now is much lower than the magnet of political attention. What has changed? And if it seems that he turns negative attention to “energy”, as Klein said in January, is his relative lack of vision now means that he is flowing?
Starting, I was among Many commentators who expected to share the lead center with Trump, with a talented talented attention, will not end well for musk; Trump will quickly come to resent it up and will be briefly denying it, perhaps after inevitable time Magazine Imagine musk as a “real” president. This cover, however, came and went without a large bombing. Musk is now abroad, but its exit from Missive on Wednesday was grateful, and Trump Who is supposed He still has a passion for him. Officials said Musk was always scheduled to leave a hundred and thirty days – a teacher who decreases today – according to the rules related to his status as a private government employee.
However, I would like to claim that Musk seems to be a victim of a common dynamic from the Trump era: the impossibility of participating in highlighting the president for any sustainable period of time, and Trump’s apparent uniqueness when it comes to attracting people’s attention, keeping it, and often going out. On Bodcast Klein, Republican politicians who are checking from Hayes, including Mark Robinson and Carrie Lake, who ran on the Trump brand brand Anger The races that could be profit, without failing to back down from Trump, were lost at least in any solid meaning. Currently, Musk resembles these numbers more than Trump. Unlike Robinson and Lake, he did not run for the same office, but it was usually seen as the central number in A. The state’s Supreme Court race In the state of Wisconsin earlier this year. he Premium Voting as an important matter for “the future of America and the future of the world”, after taking the theater in a gathering in a hat of cheese; The candidate who supported him is easily lost, in what Guardian newly The name Musk “Waterloo Political”.
In fact, while Trump has – in general, if not always – to take advantage of understanding that any interest is mainly worth, attracted all the negative interest in recent months, not the least of it regarding Dodge Discounts, it seems really to harm the technology pole. Opinion polls showed that musk is not popular. Democrats turned it into a campaign punch and it seems ready to continue to punch, whatever its future role; Many Republicans, in turn, distance themselves from it. (“People hate him,” said one of the party’s agents Politico. “He went to Wisconsin, believing that he is able to buy people’s voices, wear a cheese hat, and behave like a 9 -year -old … he doesn’t work. He is offering people.” If this is true, the crane may have retreated against him.
It is important, that the lack of popular musk – or, at least, places it as a poisoned slogan – appears to hit it in the pocket; Protests, sometimes violent, Tesla targetingThe car company most likely contributed to the decrease in the share price, and the results of the first quarter showed a significant decline in profits. Earlier this month, Wall Street Journal I mentioned The Tesla Council told Musk that he needed to devote more time to the company, and he even thought about replacing him as an executive president denies this, but it seems that his focus is now due to his work: Pillars His activity analysis on X found that he is increasingly writing about “space travel, electric cars and artificial intelligence”; He told the newspaper this week, in interview Before testing a SpaceX missile, “I am physically here. This is the focus.” Financial wealth, perhaps, won the battle with other types of wealth, as they usually do.
Musk can still manipulate the attention of people, including by by Show To recede from the political scene – Katie Dramond, from Wirelessand Proposal Recently, his apparent return to Tesla may be about “optics” and “narration”; The company is in trouble and “needs a way to change that story.” Last month, Musk suggested that it may continue to devote a day or two a week for government affairs, which will remain “a lot of Elon Musk”. His position on Wednesday looked like a more stable departure than that. But its influence will definitely live in any of the two directions, through the network of allies he gathered in the government, as I noticed recently In this columnOr, perhaps, by whispering in Trump’s ear. (Perhaps musk has pledged to restore his political spending, but, as, as Times Note that he previously funded the campaigns in more mysterious ways and could return to this method. Dodge In the midst of the national conversation for a while, many of its actual work were performed secretly, despite the allegations of transparency. Its work continues – with more Boring actor From the characters and The artistic sounding A set of priorities, but with less importance. In this political age, the application of the pig scrutiny sometimes feels counterproductive, because they can turn it into their interest; Auditing, after all, is a form of attention. But explicit secrecy, without any attention, is much worse.
Nevertheless, Musk was not completely controlling the arm. He didn’t seem to control the attention of a very important person: himself. It definitely gives the impression that he has struggled to divide it efficiently between the reshaping of the federal government and the management of its companies. (This week, in interview with Art TechnicaHe accused the media of exaggerating the negligence of his actions, but he confessed, “Maybe I spent a lot of time in politics.) for him attention; A former executive on Twitter Proposal to Financial times This musk was the first technology leader to be affected by his own product. This dynamic continued throughout the period of Musa in Dodge. Recently, and Times Try To rebuild X Musk nutrition by following the same accounts it does: an incomplete exercise, but it seems that his followers are “the ability to seize his” attention and possibly “redirect his policy goals.”
The same analysis found that Musk is often followed by accounts that are consistent with it, which creates “an interesting alternative fact full of boundless praise – for him, for Tesla, for the sake of his policies.” This put me in the minds of Klein’s discussion about whether musk is concerned with the negative attention he gets; Hayes asked about how much he criticized the musk, but he suggested that, when he cuts it, it may be that Do He disturbs him. Since then it appears to be the events He endures Which – which outside. During his interview with BloombergMusk seemed clearly defeated: after he confirmed that he took sabotage against Tesla personally, he was asked whether that would make him regret his political work. Take a long stop and called for “evil” sabotage. On the same day, it is to talk With CNBC and I faced a similar question. “What I learned is that the old propaganda of the effective media is very effective in making you believe the incorrect things,” he said. In response to a question, for example, he said that Kanzi was stained “because of some random hand in a march.” He insisted that everything he was doing was trying to tell people that his heart went out to them, and talking about traveling to space. ♦
