Hendrix's Eccentric Commentary

2/7/2025

There has been a lot of confusion over how to describe the role of Elon Musk in the Donald Trump presidency.  Some, pointing up the power the Musk wields and the distance that Trump is seemingly keeping from the hands on exercise of power have referred to “President” Musk. This makes a point but in fact does not describe the situation as Donald Trump retains ultimate power even as he is allowing Musk to wield it.

Others have begun referring to Elon Musk as Trump’s Prime Minister.  This seems more accurate in the sense the Musk is running the government for Trump, but the analogy falls down because Musk is not trying to manage competing political interest in a multi-party legislature, instead he is wielding seemingly untrammeled authority/

I would like to suggest that the best way to think of Elon Musk’s role is that he is Trump’s vizier.  The vizier was the de facto head of the government of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.  He was the man who  did the actual, hands-on, ruling for the Sultan.  It was an appointed office and the vizier had near total authority, but it was delegated authority.  Europeans, not understanding all the subtlety, often thought that it was the means whereby a lazy sultan handed off the hard work to someone else.  

There is some truth to that, however, using a vizier also meant that the sultan could assume the role of “good cop” to the viziers “bad cop” and distance himself from unpleasant actions that needed to be taken — those were the actions of the vizier.  Moreover, if there was a failure of policy — like a war going badly — the sultan could blame it all on the incompetence of the vizier, and get rid of the vizier.

And therein lies the rub, because getting rid of the vizier could mean “sending him the bowstring” meaning that two executioners would appear and strangle him, traditionally with a bowstring.  This opened up a slot for a new vizier to fill.

Something for Elon Musk to think about.