One of the main questions asked when Donald Trump was first elected in 2016 was how he would govern, and to whom would he listen? Eight years on, the same questions have resurfaced.
Eight years ago, Trump surrounded himself with the likes of Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Chris Christie, Michael Cohen and John Bolton to name just a few who have since fallen out of favour. Populists, right-wing provocateurs, and wagon-hitchers willing to go along for the ride to find their own spotlight they may have been, but they also were well-versed in politics.
Trump’s leading tech bros: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.Credit: Artwork: Monique Westermann
This time around, it’s set to be a different story. Though Trump has pulled together a much more seasoned group of Republican political operatives, reflecting his total control over the party, he’s also brought in a new group of disruptors: the tech bros.
Over the past six months, the rise of the so-called Tech Right has been meteoric. Just a decade ago, the titans of Silicon Valley were generally considered to be left-leaning, in favour of skilled migration, regulation and transparency. Elon Musk publicly supported Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, and following the Capitol attack on January 6, Mark Zuckerberg and then-Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey banned Trump from their platforms.
Now, though, the Tech Right is ascendant. Led by Peter Thiel, a libertarian Silicon Valley billionaire who endorsed Trump in 2016 and brought many of the titans to his doorstep at Mar-a-Lago, they have seemingly found a fellow traveller in Trump – a man willing to break the rules to get what he wants, who also has a zeal for deregulation.
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The most visible of Thiel’s disciples is certainly Musk who, alongside biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy is set to co-run the Department of Government Efficiency (named after Musk’s favourite crypto coin, DOGE). Questions aside about the efficiency of having two department heads, Musk is poised [to take his Silicon Valley “A-Team”](https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/musk-set-to-dispatch-his-a-team-to-washington-20241112-p5kptm) with him to Washington – a mix of long-time deputies and engineering experts from his various companies, as well as his financial backers and ideological partners. This includes people such as hedge fund billionaires David Sacks and Bill Ackman, and long-time staffers Steve Davis, Omead Afshar and Jared Birchall. Musk has also reportedly recommended at least three other SpaceX employees to Trump for senior government positions, which are yet to be confirmed.
Other Trump appointments include Jared Isaacman – a billionaire astronaut who has worked with Musk on SpaceX projects – as administrator of NASA, and fintech chief executive Frank Bisignano as Social Security Administration commissioner.
Then, of course, there’s Thiel’s mentee, vice president-elect J.D. Vance, who spent five years living in Silicon Valley working as a venture capitalist before moving into politics.