Digital Future Daily

Elon Musk is doing exactly what a lot of observers worried (or wondered, or hoped) he would do when he jumped into politics this year: governing via X.

With a flurry of posts yesterday he helped derail Congress’ deal to avert a government shutdown, seemingly even forcing Trump’s hand on the issue.

At first it might just look like a new billionaire pulling the same old trick Donald Trump invented back in 2016, using Twitter to jawbone his enemies, surprise even his allies, and harangue Washington until he gets what he wants.

But what Musk is doing is also new, with unpredictable power — an emerging form of governance that the world has genuinely never seen before. In buying the platform, shaping it around his ideas, and tweaking the system to boost his own voice, Musk has effectively become X. It bends to his ideas, and attention and power flow around him — and the platform shapes him as well. Its feedback loop, algorithmic incentives and populist bent have transformed Musk, and are still transforming him in ways that are hard to predict.