Elon Musk, Pretender

A pitchman for the global elite, Elon Musk marketed the merits of the technocracy to a new generation of conservatives. Libertarians and religious right adherents alike perceived in him a rugged individualist who championed free speech and charmed with irreverent humor, and exhibited a rare combination of genius, business acumen, and hustle that catapulted him into billionaire status.

And then he went ahead and promoted H-1B visas to secure cheap foreign labor to advance President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again agenda, except that it wasn't MAGA but a continuation of the Biden Administration's policy of ensuring that the United States leads the world in Artificial Intelligence by hiring the best foreign H-1B workers for AI jobs that money can buy.

Musk expected his salesmanship to win the day only to draw undue attention to himself, revealing that he might just be all sizzle and no steak.