{"id":23106,"date":"2026-10-18T08:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=23106"},"modified":"2026-10-18T08:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:13:16","slug":"musk-back-in-the-spotlight-but-politics-dims-the-awe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=23106","title":{"rendered":"Musk back in the spotlight, but politics dims the awe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 300px 160px; gap: 2px; width: 460px; background: #eee; padding: 2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u6574\u884c\u5bbd\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876674\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 90px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876676\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u5de6\u4fa7\u7ad6\u6392 -->\r\n  <div style=\"height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876672\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"height: 500px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876680\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u6469\u5929\u697c\uff08\u548c\u5de6\u4fa7\u5b8c\u5168\u5bf9\u9f50\uff09 -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row: 3\/5; height: 750px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876678\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  \r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e6\" data-zoneid=\"5876682\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-right:0;padding-left:0\">\n<p>With a sports car that somersaults through the air, Elon Musk is back in the headlines for technological daring \u2014 but his plunge into politics and his return to US President Donald Trump\u2019s side mean the world\u2019s richest man no longer enjoys the unqualified praise of years past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the things that we were promised since the 1950s, of space travel and flying cars\u2026 he\u2019s doing all of those things,\u201d said Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd yet we\u2019re not giving it the attention, we\u2019re not giving it the awe that it probably truly deserves,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, Musk has seemed to be everywhere at once.<\/p>\n<p>On September 28, SpaceX\u2019s Starship megarocket reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink satellites before splashing down in the Pacific \u2014 a milestone for the rocket central to Musk\u2019s Mars ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s central role in geopolitics has also been on display, with Ukraine complaining of disruptions to the Starshield satellite communications system its military relies on.<\/p>\n<p>Even the platform formerly known as Twitter is enjoying something of a renaissance, with Musk\u2019s X now the go-to social media app for Silicon Valley insiders and the main marketplace for talk about artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>But despite his continued success, Musk\u2019s unrelenting commitment to right-wing politics has taken a toll.<\/p>\n<p>No image captured that shift more than Musk brandishing a chainsaw on stage in February 2025 \u2014 a gift from Argentine President Javier Milei \u2014 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\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n<p>Through DOGE, Musk\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2018National treasure\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n<p>That combative imagery has been matched by Musk\u2019s posts on X, where hardline anti-immigration views and right-wing conspiracy theories sit alongside posts about rocket launches and Tesla robotaxis.<\/p>\n<p>Now Musk is back in Trump\u2019s good graces, after a spectacular falling-out that followed his exit from DOGE in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Trump presented Musk with the nation\u2019s top science medal, calling him a \u201cnational treasure\u201d and \u201cour modern-day Thomas Edison.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The renewed relationship comes as Musk has spent at least $276 million on Republican political campaigns ahead of next month\u2019s midterm elections, in which the president\u2019s party is expected to struggle.<\/p>\n<p>Of that, $158 million is funding a massive advertising campaign in Texas, Musk\u2019s home state, where the Republican candidate is trailing in the polls.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>That opposition plays out in \u201cMusk,\u201d a four-hour documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney now in US theaters, which traces the life and career of the South Africa-born billionaire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI once described him as somebody who can jump off the edge of a cliff and invent a parachute on the way down. I think he thrives on chaos,\u201d Musk\u2019s first wife Justine Musk, who features prominently in the film, told podcaster Kara Swisher.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, she added, \u201cI always assume that there\u2019s a method to his madness,\u201d and many of his loudest actions may in fact be deflections and \u201csleight of hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The same may be true of Musk\u2019s dealings with Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Few entrepreneurs depend as heavily on the federal government as Musk does.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX \u2014 which went public in June in the largest initial public offering in history \u2014 earns billions of dollars a year from NASA and Pentagon contracts, while Tesla\u2019s bet on robotaxis hinges on how quickly regulators allow driverless cars onto US roads.<\/p>\n<p>Seen in that light, Musk\u2019s millions for Republicans may be less a political conversion than an investment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- \u603b\u5bb9\u5668\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u5bbd908px Grid\u7d27\u51d1\u5e03\u5c40 -->\r\n<div style=\"display: grid; 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display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t\r\n<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114303\" data-width=\"125\" data-height=\"125\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114303});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u7ad6\u680f\uff1a160\u00d7600 \u6574\u5217\u9ad8\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row:3\/8; height:600px;  display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114301\" data-width=\"160\" data-height=\"600\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114301});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<br \/> Musk back in the spotlight, but politics dims the awe<br \/>\n<br \/>#Musk #spotlight #politics #dims #awe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a sports car that somersaults through the air, Elon Musk is back in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[16857,16856,1399,5947,111],"class_list":["post-23106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-awe","tag-dims","tag-musk","tag-politics","tag-spotlight"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",768,512,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",640,427,false],"large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",768,512,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",768,512,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",768,512,false],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39-768x500.jpg",768,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39.jpg",768,512,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/056701a606e12323ca68fbf4129f8693506e2b39-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?cat=7\" rel=\"category\">Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}