It’s time to draw the curtain on celebrity businessmen like Elon Musk

He has as many fans as customers but his celebrity has taken on a sinister aspect with his Trumpian tweets and the reopening of Tesla’s California plant in defiance of restrictions, writes James Moore

Musk has much in common with the US president (AFP via Getty)

Tesla boss Elon Musk, celebrity businessman, green guru, space explorer, genius (maybe), seems intent on adding “Trumpkin” to that list with his behaviour over Covid-19.

The commonalities were always there. They’re both businessmen (Trump was of a sort), thin-skinned egotists, Twitter superstars and sometime subscribers to such a profound level of bullshit that they appear to live in alternate realities of their own creation.

Trump is, of course, a conman on a grand scale whose explosions have become such a part of daily routine that they’re only impactful when he really pushes the boat out (witness the shrug that’s greeted his twittering about a supposed “Obamagate”).

Musk is more of a Professor Brainstorm. His outbursts are infrequent, sometimes spectacular, certainly sufficient to provide entertainment on quiet news days, not least because of the occasional legal hot water they’ve landed him in. But they are punctuated by periods where he gets on with the job of revolutionising the automotive industry.

Tesla’s products and prospects as a company are open to debate, but the impact he’s had on the latter is undeniable. The tortoises of the industry have been scrambling to catch up with the mad march hare. He’s making cars cleaner, and greener.

All that good work is being undone by the current pandemic, which has elicited another unflattering comparison with Trump. They’ve both railed against the restrictions imposed by the more sensible American state governors, putting business interests above people’s lives that their actions have seemingly shown a callous disregard for.

“FREE AMERICA NOW,” tweeted Musk, adopting both the president’s theme and his unnecessary use of capital letters.

Having whined about the restrictions imposed by California with a view to keeping its people safe, and threatened to pull Tesla’s manufacturing operation out of the state, Musk has reopened the plant in defiance of Alameda County, which on Monday sought to remind that him that he was not authorised to move beyond minimum basic operations.

Its officials have been left in an impossible position, underlined by Trump’s Treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs alum Steve Mnuchin, who jumped to Musk’s defence, urging the state to do “whatever they need to do to solve those health issues to that he can open quickly and safely”.

“Quickly” is apparently more important than “safely”. The advice of medical professionals has scarcely been heard in the midst of the debate.

Musk’s hissy fit could have serious consequences. It will be down to fortune if it doesn’t.

Regardless, it has shone a decidedly unflattering spotlight on the celebrity businessman, whose stardom draws in fans as much as customers.

Trump, of course, fully crossed over into the celebrity universe long before he became a politician. He’s proved far more successful at generating clicks and eyeballs than cash, which might explain his unseemly obsession with TV ratings. It reached its nadir with his boasting the viewership of his coronavirus briefings while Americans were, you know, dying.

Musk is many ways more in line with the likes of Sir Richard Branson, another entrepreneur with a celebrity halo that’s become tarnished through the course of the pandemic, most notably when he offered to put his luxury island up as collateral in pursuit of a government loan for his airline.

Less colourful, more traditional business leaders have sometimes done better. Those who have are more deserving of cheers than the businessmen who have sought them by adopting the trappings of celebrity and seeking to exploit their fame by thumbing their nose not just at rules but also at basic humanity.