President Donald Trump, who literally came within one inch of his life dodging a sniper’s bullet, and Elon Musk, who now faces serious death threats for working to save the country from bankruptcy over wasteful government spending, don’t take on these voluntary risks for money or fame.
They already have more than plenty of both.
Their only apparent motivation is a shared passion to put the present and future well-being of the nation above self-interests.
The costs for each of them have been enormous.
The previous administration, and the one before being elected the first time, unrelentingly weaponized the U.S. justice system against candidate and subsequent president Trump, endlessly attempting to bankrupt, criminalize, and imprison him over transparently groundless accusations that fortunately backfired with a majority of voters.
Anti-Musk activists are firebombing Tesla sales facilities, vehicles, and charging stations.
These represent the irrational reactions over DOGE's investigations and exposures of widespread waste and fraud.
The probes have led to federal agency program terminations and layoffs contributing to corporate stock value losses.
Far worse, both MAGA President Trump and mega billionaire Musk face daily threats that few of us would accept — for any amount of money.
Additionally, on top of that July 2024 assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and another sniper plot against his life by a gunman arrested outside his West Palm Beach, Florida Trump International Golf Club, just nine weeks later, our nation's 47th commander in chief has reportedly been targeted by Iran, in presumed retaliation for his previous administration’s Jan. 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qassem Soleimani.
Tesla CEO and lead DOGE administrator Elon Musk commented during a March "The Joe Rogan Experience" (YouTube/Spotify) interview: "I actually have to be careful that I don't push too hard on the corruption stuff because it's going to get me killed.
"I was actually thinking about it on the plane while flying over here," [for Rogan's podcast]: "I mean this is really going to get me assassinated.
"It’s like I’m not lengthening my lifespan by explaining this stuff, say the least. I mean I’m supposed to go back to D.C.
"How am I going to survive? Those fu**ers are going to kill me for sure."
Musk added, "So in fact I do think like, it’s like actually I’ve got to be careful I don’t push too hard on the corruption stuff because it’s going to get me killed."
Elon Musk has referred to Donald Trump’s "Fight! Fight! Fight!" response to the Butler shooting as an event that inspired special admiration for his "American bad**s" leadership example and decision to support his 2024 campaign.
So, what — beyond both being gobsmackingly rich — do they have in common?
How did the 53-year-old born in South Africa during the era of racial apartheid ever hook up as a tight ally with a 78-year-old property developer and reality TV star from New York, who came to politics very late in life?
Perhaps for starters, both passionately share common values regarding freedom, speech for example. Recall that, in 2021 during the Biden-Harris era, Trump resorted to creating a separate Truth Social media platform, this after having been banned on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Musk, a censorship opponent, lifted Twitter’s Trump ban after buying the company the following year.
Both Trump and Musk had strong vision and spine to break with failing status quo policies.
Trump turned his successful real estate development and negotiation talents to address complex and daunting national and global policy challenges involving allies and adversaries.
Musk, who originally made his fortune in Silicon Valley, became a wildly successful technical innovator and executive in several industries, including solar energy, electric vehicles, space rocketry, satellite communications, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Both have accomplished remarkable achievements against great odds.
President Trump turned an adversarial mug shot intended to destroy his reelection chances into a popular campaign promotion portrait and photographic victory trophy.
Musk built the most successful automotive startup in a half-century and was recently cheered as a hero by green energy net zero enthusiasts for advancing green energy and EV technology, and figured out how to catch reusable rockets with metal chopsticks after re-entry from space.
Neither are finished setting and achieving marvelous goals
Donald Trump is intent upon making America great again by every metric and ending global wars which threaten to bury human society in nuclear rubble.
Elon Musk is set upon colonizing Mars to preserve humanity and human consciousness before war and/or AI make such self-destruction impossible.
Meanwhile, we can demonstrate appreciation for their vision, inspiration, and resolute courage by voting with ballots against government candidates and TV remotes against media pundits who foment deranged violence by villainizing Trump as a threat to democracy, and Musk as a Nazi.
All bets are off for America’s bright future if we allow terrorists and other psychopaths to prevail in carrying out their threats on such remarkable lives devoted to making ours better.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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