In 2023, well before he switched to full-throated support of Donald Trump’s campaign, Elon Musk outlined the qualities he hoped for in a president. “Are they good at getting things done? There’s a lot of decisions that need to be made every day,” Elon Musk told CNBC. “They’re CEO of America. We want a good CEO of America.”
Twice now, voters have elected Trump on the promise that he would behave as this decisive chief executive and bring his business experience to bear, rather than becoming bogged down in Washington’s political swamp. After his election last November, “Trump is a businessman” was the four-word mantra used by foreign leaders, from Ireland’s then Taoiseach Simon Harris to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as they expressed their early hopes he would use his much-hyped dealmaking experience to apply tariffs judiciously or put pressure on Russia.
The president still dresses like the US chief executives of the 1990s, who were mostly older white men in suits and ties. Since taking office in January, he has also behaved, on the surface, like those command-and-control corporate leaders. He has issued executive orders at unprecedented speed and volume, avoiding the messy horse-trading that might have ensued if he had taken the legislative route through Congress.