In 2020, Elon Musk told The Wall Street Journal that the “government is simply the largest corporation.”
For the man who has everything, what else would he want?
The attempt by the world’s richest man to both reduce and reboot the sprawling federal bureaucracy whiffed miserably. No boss ever gets popular by firing a workforce, especially when the sums don’t add up.
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But Thursday’s incendiary X attacks on Donald Trump may have revealed a more sinister method to Musk’s madness. It may lead down dark corridors way beyond the shocking upheaval of the current administration.
Musk, after all, is not a person to give up without a fight.
Elon has been compared to Brutus as he sticks a $420 billion knife into the president’s back with his relentless posts. But Brutus killed Caesar to protect the Republic. Musk’s goal may well be to destroy it.
The clue is in Musk’s black MAGA caps. He wasn’t thinking of a golden era. It was the dark before the dawn.
We are perhaps not far off from seeing the Dark MAGA conspiracy theory involving Musk come to life. It goes like this: A secret cabal of tech bros was plotting to usurp Trump and turn the United States into a giant company run by a CEO they would install in his place. The whole concept started to gain traction after JD Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
Vance wasn’t Trump’s choice. Donald wanted Fox News host Maria Bartiromo.
Musk wanted Vance, and so did PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Their multi-million-dollar campaign war chest was dependent on the choice that Trump got pushed into.
According to the “Dark MAGA” or “Dark Enlightenment” theory, Vance was groomed by Silicon Valley billionaires as Trump’s successor. He was their man in government. He was their sleeper.
The theory has its roots in Musk and Thiel’s involvement in PayPal, the company that launched their fortunes. Other PayPal executives went on to lead other tech firms as part of a so-called “PayPal Mafia.”
The supposed guru of the Dark Enlightenment movement was Curtis Yarvin, 51, a Brown-educated, one-time pony-tailed computer coder. He preaches that the media and academia are a “Cathedral” that secretly controls the country. Harvard was the deep state ruler. The New York Times was the devil. You can see where this is going.
Under the alias of “Mencius Moldbug”, Yarvin wrote a 120,000-word blog called ‘An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives.’ It lobbed a hand grenade at the heart of democracy as long ago as 2008.
At that time, the U.S. was enthralled by the idea of “Hope,” instilled by the election of Barack Obama as president.
Democracy was at the very heart of Obama’s philosophy.
Yarvin believed differently. He argued that America should be run by a “monarchy” presided over by a dictator CEO.
Federal employees would be fired in such quantities that the government would no longer be manageable. Elections would be deemed obsolete. Policies would engender fear and distract the population. The Dark MAGA or Dark Enlightenment theory says it is the remit of the tech billionaires to run the world because they are the only ones with the resources and the know-how to fix it. To Yarvin, who likes to philosophize in computer idioms, democracy was “outdated software” and government needed a “reboot.”
For years, Yarvin’s views were marginalized and ridiculed.
Then, in 2025, they began to become a reality.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, an adviser to Trump, has cited Yarvin, as has Musk. Yarvin, often referred to in this geeky techie circle as the “Dark Elf” philosopher, was invited to the inauguration. He has appeared on shows with Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk. Steve Bannon is an admirer.
His theories became Executive Orders. They found a home in the Trump administration.
But Trump was the messenger of chaos. Musk was the arbiter.
Some of Washington’s biggest institutions have been briefed about Dark Enlightenment. They are taking it seriously. We may have expected the great bromance between the president and his prince to end, but few expected it to be so vicious.
In a matter of hours, Trump was facing a challenge to his authority that could damage him more than Joe Biden or Kamala Harris ever could.
Musk’s virulent opposition—taking the gloves off with a reference to Jeffrey Epstein, for example—poses an existential threat to the presidency.
Trump thought long and hard about reacting to Musk’s outspoken opposition to his “big, beautiful bill.” But he couldn’t help himself. He is the scorpion. He will sting because that’s his nature.
Musk will win, because that’s his.
The swords are drawn now.
The Trump Show has taken a much darker turn.
The great irony is that Donald Trump could represent the last bastion of democracy in a country built on the very idea of freedom.
Because if you are going to put money on the winner in this fight, Musk has it all.
