Trump and Musk: Who is the puppet and who the puppeteer? Data control and the possible answer

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The readers of this review know that we have already expressed ours doubts On the fact that Donald Trump is a new Nixon, or a revived Kissinger, with a precise foreign policy strategy. On the other hand, after a day like that of Wednesday 26 February, in which he mixed insults and promises of duties to the European Union («She was born to scam»), Threats to US public employees, South Tyrol in Zelensky («NATO can be forgotten»), The relaunch of a video On the « Gazer Riviera » and other things that, alone, would have deserved titles on titles, we are quite inclined to believe in what he has written Luca De Biase, founder and director of Nòva, weekly of science, technology and innovation of Sole 24 hourson the fact that There is probably some method (at least communicative) in so much apparent madness.

Trump’s lies

For his supporters, the « uncontrollable flow of opinions » that Trump pours every hour of the day and times of the night on social and media is the « result of an authentic person who expresses himself with great spontaneity ». Use Simple words and clear judgments: What the opponents do is almost always « very bad » and what friends realize is obviously « beautiful ». Less precise and clear are numbers and content, given that the statements inaccurate or unfounded made by Trump during his first presidency are counted, According to those who deal with fact checkingin the order of Tens of thousands.

But, apart from the fact that a year ago an analysis of Washington Post (also published from the sheet), reported that « Trump did significant steps in convincing the republicans that his lies are the truth», Which does not constitute a great incentive to give themselves a regulated, according to De Biase there is more:« By joining the dots and some information can be recognized in fact the sections of one communication strategy organized in three points. The first chapter of that strategy is the maximization of the effect of the declarationsto be obtained using a set of tools that help in choosing the topics to be raised, of the times to publish and the targets to which to contact messages. The tools available for this kind of operations are numerous. Sprout, Hootsuite, Planly and many others can be mentioned. Surely By crossing artificial intelligence models, very important results can be obtained». For example X, by Elon Musk, he developed Radarable to recognize, analyzing a huge amount of data, the most important topics at any time of the day, with a distinction by type of audience. « Of course – writes De Biase – Trump, also thanks to Musk’s support, can enjoy the best possible information to maximize the traffic and the effectiveness of the messages to be externalized».

The communicative strategy of Trump

A second pillar of Trump’s communicative strategy is « the analysis of public reactions to its externations. It is quite clear that in the quantity of things that the president says, some are reiterated continuously, others abandoned. This is not just a natural human fickle. It is also the result of analysis: If the public is passionate about a topic it is worth insisting. If a question does not care, it can be overlooked».

The third pillar was well explained, according to De Biase, by Steve Bannonformer Trump strategist, recycled as the leader of the « hard and pure sorceress », the most radical Trumpians. «Bannon claimed that Trump must say many things every day, decide on different topics: If Trump manages to have at least three news every day to be proposed to the attention of the electorate, newspapers and political opponents, he will win. Because, Bannon claims, the Democrats and newspapers cannot deepen that one topic at a time. And therefore the amount of novelty will make it difficult for critics to block the president’s action ».

We allow ourselves to object that the media and readers – Americans and not – are able, if you want, to deepen more than one topic at a time (perhaps it is also for what Trump has more than one banned from the rooms of power). But it is undeniable that sometimes it really does struggles to keep up with the externalizations A burst shot by the tenant of the White House.

How much Musk weighs on the election campaign

De Biase makes another interesting observation: «Probably Musk thinks similarly. He showed it during the election campaign. On social media it had potentially Very important opponents, such as Taylor Swift and the other stars of cinema and music who had decided to support the democratic candidate Kamala Harris. The hundreds of millions of Musk’s followers were certainly no longer of the sum of the followers of those characters loved by the American public. Yet, clearly, Musk influenced more: he wrote At least one hundred posts a day for the countryside and two hundred on the last day. In the quantity he did not meet opposition and pushed the attention of the public in the desired direction ».

Also assuming that the voice of Hollywood and the Star System is not the most welcome to the ears of those who feel and feel « left behind », it is difficult to deny that Musk, like Trump, know how to earn – for better or for worse, depending on the points of view – The center of the scene.

Will Musk be able to guide Trump?

So much so that, speaking of the « Musk variable » we talked about in the Review of On Wednesday 26 February, De Biase is asked a question: «If Musk is so ahead in the competence and instrumentation necessary to know what it should be said to maximize the political effect of the externations, will he be able to advise the president with so much effectiveness as to convince him to say what he believes more right? It can be imagined that the entrepreneur can conquer a disproportionate influence on the president’s speechguiding the externalizations? Many, in fact, wonder who between the two is the puppeteer. And the question remains openlike the suspicions that the answer is the least obvious ».

The relationships of strength

It being understood that, while Trump can hunt Musk, Musk cannot hunt Trump and even think one day to replace him, having been born in South Africa and not in the USA, perhaps it is worth remembering that, on the courierthe Constitutionalist Sabino Cassese defined the « great oligarchs of digital technologies » such as « The Unique authentically and genetically universal sovereigns».

And Massimo Gaggi, commenting on the video of Musk and Trump together inside the White House, always wrote on the courier: «In fact Musk claims full powers With the consent of Trump and for the first time he admits what we have been writing for months: the goal of Trumpian technologists was to transfer to the Washington government machine The logic of the business revolution of Silicon Valley Fixed in the slogan « move quickly and break everything ». (…) By now the invective and the emphatic claim count more than the cold, and much less attractive, reality of the facts. So Musk can argue that the action of his doge is also legitimate because it is absolutely transparenteven if, in reality, so far the task force has moved in secret and he He even defined a crime the publication of the names of his members by the press. And transparency? He does it by putting on x the information they garbise him. And the conflict of interest, given that its companies have billionaire contracts with the government? There is not because those contracts do not personally sign them. « 

The data weapon

Some additional reflection, which also touches the role of Musk and the question of transparency, made it, on internationalJayati Ghosh, comparing the moves of Donald Trump and those of the Indian premier Narendra modeswhich imposed an authoritarian turning point in the country, in the name of Hindu nationalism. «As much as they seem different, today’s authoritarian leaders are studied, not to govern better, but to exercise a closer grip on power. At the center of these efforts is the data controlwhich leads to an epochal change in accessing public information. Even if citizens around the world are increasingly often forced to provide their personal data to authoritarian leaders and their allies – like Elon Musk and his collaborators of the Department of Government (Doge) – cannot access the information necessary for claim that those same leaders take their responsibilities».

Think, just to give an example, of the intentant and spring with which Trump, during his first presidency, He had opposed the publication of his tax return In comparison with the lightness with which we tried to give the personal data of the Americans to the dog’s team (lightness such as to provoke the intervention of the judges).

In India, Ghosh continues, « Modes transformed the statistics institutes into a weapononce the most reliable in the developing world. The Indian premier politicized the National Statistics Commission, originally an independent body responsible for verifying and supervising the collection of official data. Then he targeted the central statistics office, which collects most of the economic data and destroyed its credibility. The government is so afraid of the data that it has even deleted the ten -year census of 2021, without saying when it will be done ».

The Indian commentator is convinced that the United States have more robust antibodies To resist thePolitical use of personal data. But invites still not to lower the guard: «Perhaps the United States will not follow the political trajectory of India. Their institutions, in particular the judicial system, can provide a certain protection, as long as they are solid. In a context in which authoritarianism is growing, however, we must contrast attempts to transform data into the hands of governments into arms against democracy».