Taylor’s Takes: I, for one, DID vote for Elon Musk

I’ll admit it. At the outset of the 2024 election cycle, I was lukewarm to Donald Trump’s third candidacy for President. A wide field of candidates, several of them seemingly competent, represented to me the possibility of a victory for the Republican Party.

Remember, we had just taken a bit of a beating in the mid-terms. And with Democrats proposing to pack the Supreme Court and continue with their open border policies, victory for the GOP needed to be a sure thing.

I wasn’t so certain that Trump had the path to victory needed to defeat the Democrat machine. He was in the midst of several pending cases as a result of the endless lawfare that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice waged against Trump and his base.

It would take a miracle for Donald Trump to secure the nomination, let alone win the election.

Little did I know that several miracles would make that possible.

As Trump crisscrossed the nation, exiting courtrooms and entering packed arenas, the state and federal cases levied against him began cracking one by one. The facts were on Trump’s side while the plaintiffs wielded corruption disguised as justice to try to stonewall his candidacy.

That was miracle number one.

Then on a Saturday evening in July in Butler, Pennsylvania, miracle number two occurred. Trump’s life was spared as an assassin’s bullet grazed his head.

At this point, Trump had all but secured the nomination, officially accepting it just days after being shot. And I was fully back on the Trump Train. Nothing would shake my confidence in his ability and determination again.

Miracle number three was securing the endorsement of a recently-red-pilled Silicon Valley billionaire. Trump’s survival of the Butler assassination attempt propelled Elon Musk to pledge his full and extremely enthusiastic support for the former President.

Musk, who had seen the full might of the Democrat machine as revealed in the Twitter Files, and battled government bureaucracy every day through his companies, had had enough.

I’m not one for celebrity endorsements.

For one, I think it’s absolutely egotistical and pretentious for anyone to believe that their adoring fans should vote for the candidate of the celebrity’s choice just because they said so. Why should anyone listen to the prodding of Beyonce or Taylor Swift just because they have a shelf of Grammy awards at home?

Secondly, the celebrity endorsement always fractures the fanbase. While many followers of the famous may not care about their politics, those who do may find themselves choosing to opt out of their fandom. It may seem trite, but that is one of the many costs of sinking into the political arena. Think of Robert De Niro. Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Godfather Part II, Casino. The man has countless incredible movies to his credit. But it’s almost impossible to watch anything of his these days without hearing his words from the 2018 Tony awards echo through my mind: “I’m going to say one thing. Fuck Trump!”

But Elon Musk rose above the typical insignificance of the standard celebrity endorsement. And no, it’s not because he pledged support for Trump. It’s because he put his words into action.

Musk didn’t just make an endorsement. He became a cheerleader. He showed up at events and professed his belief that the future of the country and the world was best in the hands of the Republican Party. He presented a convincing argument to the public over and over again. Not just a few empty words at a singular campaign whistle stop.

And Musk went even a step further. It was Elon who presented the concept of a Department of Government Efficiency to candidate Trump. An arm of the government to hold all of the other arms accountable to the taxpayers.

This is what most captivated me. There would be no true draining of the swamp without unclogging all of the sludge stuck in the drain.

We cannot make America great again if the country is weighed down by needless and frivolous spending. And we can’t affect real change in the rest of the world if we’re not operating on all cylinders.

And we can’t expect Americans to have a chance to prosper if their tax dollars are going to waste. If the United States’ budget is bloated, then the taxpayers’ obligation to the budget is also bloated.

Who could possibly argue that saving the country money, therefore saving the taxpayers’ money, is a bad thing?

Of course, we know the answer to that question: Trump-deranged lunatics. People who will oppose the President’s every thought, proposal, and spoken word simply because they’ve gobbled up every single lie fed to them by the mainstream media.

These sticks in the mud find themselves gathering on bare street corners in the middle of the day to voice their opposition to the DOGE initiative. They scribble unwitty phrases onto posterboard too small for any passersby to read, all the while unenthusiastically chanting something about what “democracy looks like.”

One of the mainstays of these makeshift protests is the phrase “No one elected Elon Musk.”

Many have countered this point by saying the bureaucracy DOGE is whittling down wasn’t elected, either.

But I offer a different defense.

I did vote for Elon Musk.

He may not have declared his candidacy. He may not have run a campaign. His name may not have been on any ballot.

But I voted for him all the same.

I wanted exactly what he and DOGE have been doing. I want to know that my tax dollars are staying in this country where they belong and are being stretched as far as they can.

I want to have faith and trust in my government.

Elon Musk, elected or not, is working to restore that faith and trust.