Pushkin.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the greatest capitalist in the history of the United States of America, Elon Musk.

In October, 24, nine days before the U.S. presidential election,

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, took to the stage at a rally for Donald Trump in New York City.

He wore black jeans, a black t-shirt, black blazer, and a black baseball hat that red and dark gray embroidery, make America great again. I'm not just MAGA. I'm dark Gothic MAGA.

Elon Musk, an American oligarch and entrepreneurial genius, had stood on many stages before he seized the podium at Madison Square Garden.

Ted Talks, Tesla product rollouts, SpaceX Launchpads.

He also owns a stage, a platform, ever since he bought Twitter and renamed it X.

And he owns a sizable portion of the global communications infrastructure through his satellite company, Starlink.

But this Madison Square Garden gig was part of a different endeavor entirely.

Musk spent a staggering amount of money to help get Trump and Republicans elected.

The world's richest man spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on the return to power

of the world's most powerful man, like some kind of Superman or super villain.

Returning to the White House, Trump promised to bring Musk with him.

You guys are awesome.

And once Musk got a taste for this kind of thing, he began to involve himself in politics of other nations.

In Germany, in the UK, what does Musk's reinvention of himself as a kingmaker mean for the United States and for the world?

How long will it last? No one knows what's going to happen next. But what happened before?

In 2021, before Musk joined forces with Trump, before Musk bought Twitter, before Musk was in the news every day, he was in the news every other day, with headlines that sounded ripped from science fiction.

Superfast underground trains, rockets to Mars, brain control implants.

I made a BBC series in which I tried to explain Musk

by way of the science fiction he grew up with.

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