Opinion | From Musk to Bannon, Trump’s rabble of backers are heading for a brawl

The competing agendas of Trump’s elite supporters are clashing, with the sharpest conflict between the economic nationalists and techno-right

Reading Time:4 minutes

Elon Musk listens to US President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on February 11. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:00pm, 1 Mar 2025

Although Donald Trump came to office in America riding a tsunami of public hostility against “elites”, his enablers are leading members of the establishment and plutocracy. As during his first term, Trump – a wealthy businessman and celebrity – has surrounded himself with a mix of conventional Republican politicians, Wall Street financiers and economic nationalists.

This time, these groups have been joined by members of the techno-right, represented most glaringly by Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person.

What unites these groups, at least for the time being, is not Trump’s character or his leadership – both of which leave much to be desired. Rather, it is the belief that their specific agendas will be better served under Trump than under the most likely alternative.

Conservative Republicans want low taxes and less regulation, while economic nationalists want to close the trade deficit and restore US manufacturing. Free-speech absolutists want to end what they see as “woke censorship”, while the techno-right wants a free hand to enact its vision of the future.

These groups all regarded Kamala Harris (and Joe Biden) as a hindrance and Trump as a promising ally. Most do not oppose democracy per se but they do seem willing to overlook, and hence facilitate, Trump’s authoritarianism so long as their agenda is served.

Press them on Trump’s anti-democratic impulses and contempt for the rule of law, and they will equivocate or minimise the risks.