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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Elon Musk’s Pivot from Online Troll to Political Machinator

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.23.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss how Elon Musk has once again found himself at the center of a geopolitical dustup—this time in Venezuela, where strongman Nicolas Maduro has accused Musk of hacking the nation’s electoral council. Although the allegations are unsubstantiated, Maduro’s worries about Musk meddling in the affairs of other countries “are not without foundation,” Anderson writes. His latest piece, “Elon Musk’s Surging Political Activism,” explores Musk’s metamorphosis into a geopolitical power broker.


This week’s reading:

“Elon Musk’s Surging Political Activism,” by Jon Lee

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Billionaire TechMogel, Elon Musk, has once again involved himself in a geopolitical dustup.

0:07.3

This time it's in a political crisis unfolding in Venezuela where a strong man Nicholas

0:12.1

Maduro has held on to power after an election that has

0:15.1

been widely condemned as both undemocratic and rife with fraud.

0:20.1

In the election's aftermath,

0:24.5

Maduro has accused Musk of leading a cyber attack on Venezuela's

0:28.5

electoral council.

0:29.8

The mouth that's me with me go,

0:32.1

seska, that in Venezuela is And though the claim is unsubstantiated,

0:34.0

Minnesota, Cesar.

0:36.0

And the most.

0:37.0

That's the law.

0:38.0

That's tell you go to the most.

0:40.0

That's illegal.

0:42.0

And though the claim is unsubstantiated, Musk's ability to manipulate geopolitics

0:46.8

seemingly on a whim illustrates the power that the South African billionaire has

0:50.8

come to wield in recent years.

0:53.0

New Yorker staff writer John Lee Anderson

0:55.3

joins us today to discuss Musk's brewing feud with Maduro

0:58.8

and what the conflict illustrates about the outsized role

1:01.4

that Musk has grown to wield both domestically and abroad.

1:04.0

You're listening to the political scene.

...

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