Copyright Getty Images – Canva
Elon Musk will play a role in Donald Trump’s second term in office, with the president-elect announcing the billionaire’s position in his future cabinet. How much do you know about Musk? Here are eight facts that may surprise you.
America has spoken and Season 2 of the Donald Trump Presidency is on its way.
His cabinet is taking shape, with Trump announcing that Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Yep, that spells ‘DOGE’ – reference to Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, dogecoin.
You can’t make this sort of sh*t up.
Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
It looks unlikely that this will be a proper cabinet position for Musk, as he would have to divest all of his business interests, such as Tesla and X – something Musk is unlikely to do. Regardless, this is a sign that Musk will have a substantial role in Trump’s presidency.
It’s hardly surprising, considering how the tech billionaire has completely aligned himself with Trump and his hateful rhetoric, becoming one of the future president’s closest allies. He’s donated at least $130 million to him and Republicans, he’s let Trump back on X, and has made regular appearances at his rallies.
Musk has even been spending his time since the election with Trump at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, even sitting in on calls with world leaders, including one with President Zelenskyy.
As he burrows himself like the attention-starved tick he is, it’s plain to see that Musk will be a key player in terms of influence.
Future VP JD Vance can’t be thrilled about this hunder-stealing…
For some, it’s wonderful news; for others, deeply unnerving – as Musk is a divisive figure, to say the least.
Many consider him to be a genius and a futurist – a self-taught programmer who created and sold his first video game (“Blastar”) at age 12 and went on to become one of the richest men on earth. Essentially, a real-life Tony Stark.
The flipside to that coin is that Musk is more a poor man’s Lex Luthor, an influence-obsessed megalomaniac defined by his petty trolling and sexist jokes that reveal a dangerous man-child who enjoys courting controversy, isn’t shy about spreading falsehoods and factless conspiracies online. He also dreams of colonizing Mars in 2029 – a year in which many would love nothing more than to see him shuttle up to the red planet and never return.
Love him or loathe him, there’s not much middle ground when it comes to the controversial entrepreneur.
Not being shy about expressing himself, a lot is already known about him.
But did you know that…
He loves sci-fi and being on screen
Musk has cited Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” as his favourite books, shaping his views on technology and exploration.
He is also a huge fan of the X-Men series, having named Tesla’s assembly robots after X-Men characters – including Xavier, Wolverine and Cyclops – and loves seeing his face on the big and small screens.
Another thing him and Trump have in common.
Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies was apparently partially inspired by Elon Musk. Fitting therefore that Musk made a brief (and cringy) cameo in Iron Man 2.
He’s also appeared as himself in movies like action flick Machete Kills, and sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. Additionally, he’s voiced himself in animated shows such as The Simpsons, South Park and Rick and Morty – in which he voiced a character called Elon Tusk.
He owns James Bond’s car
Well, one of them at least.
In 2013, he snapped up the Lotus Esprit car driven by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me – you know, the one that drives off the pier and turns into a submarine.
Makes sense, since Musk’s critics have compared him to a real-life James Bond villain.
Musk was apparently disappointed to learn that his $1 million purchase couldn’t actually transform into a sub, and joked that he would upgrade the car to make it functional.
No news on whether he has, but it does sound like something we would do.
He’s a D&D and FPS fan
Musk is a fan of tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. His cousin Peter Rive told Elon Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson that “even as a kid, Elon had a whole bunch of different demeanours and moods” but said his personality changed for the better while playing D&D.
He also reportedly loves playing First-Person Shooter games, like Fallout and Mass Effect.
He claimed on Joe Rogan’s infamous podcast that he was one of the top 20 players in the world playing Diablo 4. That turned out to be false, as website TheGamer reported that an account supposedly belonging to Musk was on an unofficial leaderboard called Helltides.com, which only had 1,000 players. Not a worldwide figure, to say the least, considering the millions that play the game.
He was in the Top 20 of that small list, and according to Forbes, Musk dropped to 36th position after Trump won the election.
He’s obsessed with the Letter X
This dates back to when he tried to name his second company X.com, which became PayPal. He finally got his way when he launched the Model X, one of electric car company Tesla’s earliest models, founded SpaceX (even if the ‘X’ was relegated to a suffix), launched his artificial-intelligence app xAI, and rebranded Twitter as X.
You can read more about the symbolic weight of his obsession here.
He has released his own fragrance
With a name like his, it was only going to be a matter of time… Still, no one was expecting Musk to name his scent “Burnt Hair”. And it was his call to give it precisely that odour.
He announced the launch of “Burnt Hair” in October 2022, describing it as the “finest fragrance on Earth”.
Bottles sold for $100 and completely sold out. It reportedly made Musk more than $1 million in just a few hours. He really needed that…
Makes you want to hurl yourself into the Godless oblivion, doesn’t it?
His sister has directed erotic films
Tosca Musk is the CEO of a company called Passionflix, which adapts romance novels and erotic fan fiction for the screen. She even directs some of the films herself.
The online service, which launched in 2017, allows its customers to browse a variety of content that’s ranked on a “barometer of naughtiness.”
“We focus on connection, communication and compromise – and remove the shame from sexuality, specifically for women, because it empowers women to both acknowledge and ask for pleasure,” she told CNN.
Passionflix fans say that the movies are empowering, so excellent news there – especially in an industry that is still mostly controlled by men.
He has fathered 11 children
Musk has had 11 children – six with his ex-wife Justine Wilson; three with the musician Grimes; and two with Neuralink director of operations Shivon Zilis.
Tragically, his firstborn son, Nevada, died from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at just 10 weeks old.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2021, he said civilization is going to crumble if people don’t have more children. “I’m trying to set a good example. Got to practice what I preach,” he said.
There’s been a lot of ink spilled regarding his kids’ more unusual names.
In 2020, Musk and his ex-partner Grimes welcomed a son who they named X Æ A-12.
Catchy.
This created some controversy because in California, where Musk was living at the time, names can only use the 26 letters of the English alphabet. The child’s name was eventually changed to remove the ’12’, replacing it with A-Xii.
The ex-couple also has a daughter originally named Exa Dark Sideræl.
Where are social services when you need them?
Her name has since been changed to ‘Y’, ‘Why’, or ‘?’.
According to Walter Isaacon’s biography of the billionaire, Musk and Grimes have a third child named Techno Mechanicus.
There are no words.
Grimes filed a legal petition over parental rights of the three children she shares with Musk, and in 2022, another one of Musk’s daughters, Vivian Jenna Wilson, who is transgender, legally dropped Musk as her last name. She said she didn’t want to be related to her biological father and his hatespeech over the trans community. Musk blamed the “woke mind virus” for her transition, and she has called him a “grubby little control freak.”
He vowed to donate $6 billion to solve world hunger… and never did
Musk publicly offered to donate $6 billion to the UN World Food Programme but never followed through.
Indeed, he once responded to a screenshot of a CNN headline that read: “2% of Elon Musk’s wealth could help solve world hunger, says director of UN food scarcity organization.”
Musk tweeted that if they could “describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
Former executive director of the UN World Food Programme David Beasley called his bluff by outlining how the organisation would use the money… and Musk never responded.
Instead, less than a year later, bought Twitter for $44bn.
Doesn’t exactly make you hopeful for the common good, the goodness of humanity, or Musk’s priorities in life…
