The Week: Elon’s $366 Million of Influence, Washington’s Corruption Problem, and the Skill AI Can’t Replace

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Growing teams need a corporate card built for more, something that doesn't sacrifice speed for control. Introducing the American Express Corporate Cashback Card. Get 1.5 percent cash back on eligible business purchases, advanced spending controls, and real-time visibility, plus intelligent expense management. Get started at go.amex.mxcorporate.

Terms and cap apply.

SPEAKER_2 (0:29)

For the big ones, for the small ones, for the low and the high ones, the pacifists, the brave ones, for the optimists and the pessimists, those who value what's inside, for those who are far away, those who don't see far away, and those who don't see close, for the introverts and the extroverts, for the ones who think and the ones who do, for the ones who showed us the way. Coca-Cola, for all of us. Buy a Coca-Cola in a store near you.

George Hahn (1:18)

And dinner parties.

Sarah Longwell (1:19)

And making her Broadway debut in other desert cities.

George Hahn (1:23)

New episodes of Happy Hour are available every Wednesday. You can watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to The Week from Prof G Media, where we break down what mattered and what it all means. I'm George Hahn, and it's Friday, October 16th. Today, Elon Musk and how much power one man can buy. Then, Washington's corruption problem, and who actually gets held accountable. And finally, the storytelling skill we shouldn't let AI take from us.

Let's get into it. Elon Musk is everywhere this week. There's a nearly four-hour documentary from director Alex Gibney, an Atlantic cover story about his space race with Jeff Bezos, and another round of political spending. On Thursday's Conversations, Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyringale explained how Musk's chaotic public life coexists with a company like SpaceX.

Josh Tyringale (2:35)

The way I describe Musk in the piece is that his life is a browser with too many tabs, right? He is constantly moving between things that distract him, that interest him, personal crises, professional crises, random statements that compromise his time. And obviously, X is the tab that's always open, right? And he is always sounding off about one thing or another. What I would say is that people are many things, as you know. He's incredibly weird and complicated. And one of the reasons that SpaceX is so successful is not only delegation, but the groundwork he put in between really 2003 and 2012 to get a very skilled team that's not a huge team, but very skilled. They know exactly what they do every day. They have really clear business goals and business leadership.

You can't give him all the credit for their accomplishments, but you can give him credit for delegation, right? And the way in which he's delegated has made SpaceX very, very successful.

I'll talk in a minute about the ways in which that coheres into a future business plan, but I do think both things can be true, is that personally, he's a mess. And professionally, particularly when it comes to SpaceX, that team is really, really good.

George Hahn (3:53)

And that success has given Musk considerable leverage over the US government. Scott asked whether a future Democratic administration could reset the relationship.

Josh Tyringale (4:05)

Right now, the United States has outsourced launch capability to such a degree that we better be really careful about how we negotiate with Elon Musk. Because Musk, remember, Musk and Trump have gone back and forth on this too, and Musk threatened to turn off the rocket, the one rocket that takes Americans to the International Space Station. And the Soviets, I mean the Russians, were only too happy to charge America $80 million a seat to get them there. So right now, the only way Americans can get to space is by SpaceX.

So Musk has lots of reasons to depend on the United States government for funding, for licensing.

It's not like we have nothing, but we do actually need to be careful because right now, we've allowed ourselves to get into a position where we would not be negotiating from a position of ultimate strength. So will there be a reset in that relationship? Should there be a Democratic administration? Absolutely. Will it be overnight? And will it be the kind of strong arm of government going in and taking exactly what it wants and reposition? No chance. Musk has too much leverage.

George Hahn (5:15)

That's the leverage his businesses give him. Then there's the influence his money can buy. Musk has put roughly $366 million into this election cycle, which is more than the $290 million he put into 2024 Last May, he said he'd be doing a lot less.

On Wednesday's Prof G Markets, Ed Elson asked political strategist Bradley Tusk, what that money buys.