New Delhi: As the world watches each new episode in the simmering feud between two of the world’s most powerful men, US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, American journalist Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of the Tesla CEO becomes even more piquant.
In the latest volley between the friends-turned-foes, Musk threatened to launch an ‘America Party’ if Trump did not back down on the Republican flagship spending legislation which was approved by the US Senate Tuesday—what the US President lovingly calls his “One big, beautiful bill”.
In turn, Trump threatened to deport the tech mogul, who has held US citizenship since 2002, to South Africa. Musk seemed to tone down a little following this latest attack, saying he was “tempted” to escalate the tensions but would “refrain for now”.
Elon Musk was Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 US presidential elections, with the two becoming inseparable during Trump’s initial months back in the White House. Musk was welcomed with the especially-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But he upped and quit his job as DOGE boss in May, and has since been threatening to use his wealth to pull down Trump, even dropping hints about floating a rival political party to challenge the Republicans.
Few know that Musk the man, who has picked a fight with the most powerful man in the world, was once an awkward child obsessed with fantasy and physics. Walter Isaacson, in his biography titled Elon Musk, describes not only the genius behind Tesla and SpaceX but also the personal struggles and triumphs that have shaped Musk into who he is today.
Going by Isaacson’s book, Musk’s childhood was far from being the lucky start many assume. He spent his time in isolation, in an exile where the boy spent his time lost in thought, not even speaking when spoken to, finding refuge in elaborate imaginary worlds and science fiction. This social exclusion, the book says, made him an easy target for the brutalities of the schoolyard; he was thrown down a concrete staircase and beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalised when he came out “limp and swollen”.
He had a difficult relationship with his father Errol whose behaviour was “volatile” and left the young Elon with several phobias.
“One time, Elon got Errol to sign a check by writing on it the mysterious word ‘Excalibur’. Errol, enchanted by impressive-sounding ideas, signed it without asking,” writes Isaacson. The incident left young Elon with an almost obsessive need to stay out of any trap. Faced with what Elon called his father’s “psychological wiles” and the constant bullying in school, the boy learnt to overcome his fears by escaping into his books—mostly science fiction and philosophy.
His first wife Justine is quoted in the book as saying, “He (Elon) learned to shut down fear. If you turn off fear, then maybe you have to turn off other things, like joy or empathy.” It was this shutting off of fear that, according to Isaacson, gave birth to the famous “demon mode”, a state of obsessive intensity.
“But there’s a weak man underneath that crude exterior and those grandiose ambitions, one who feels very alone, and who has been worn down by his obsession,” writes Isaacson. During a Thanksgiving dinner in 2022, Musk’s mother Maye told Isaacson, “He loves to have family around and we have to do that for him, you know, because he’s under so much stress… We needed to be with him because he gets lonely.”
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The three chapters: PayPal, Tesla & SpaceX
During the early days of X.com (later PayPal), Musk became famously embroiled in a vicious internal battle over his insistence on removing the “dot-com slash” from web addresses. This insignificant detail of web addresses, for which he fought tooth and nail against exhausted colleagues, showed his early, obsessive preoccupation with micro-perfection.
Later, during his honeymoon, he learnt on a phone call that he had been ousted as CEO of PayPal in a boardroom coup. After this, Musk sent an emotional email: “I have given every last ounce of effort, almost all my cash from Zip2 and put my marriage on the rocks, and yet I stand accused of bad deeds to which I have not even been given an opportunity to respond.”
Explaining Musk’s rejection of traditional corporate structures, Isaacson writes: “He was a visionary who didn’t play well with others.”
Before founding SpaceX, Musk went on trips to Russia to meet “grumpy” arms dealers in smoky rooms and bargain for cheap, used ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles). “I want to make mankind a multiplanetary civilisation,” he claimed. While the Russians may have doubted his seriousness, it only hardened his belief that he could build cheaper and better rockets.
Back at SpaceX, after several disastrous launches, Musk set up a structure where engineers could analyse every single piece of burnt rocket, learning valuable lessons from each explosion. Isaacson writes: “Musk believed in a fail-fast approach to building rockets. Take risks. Learn by blowing things up. Revise. Repeat.”
Later, at Tesla, his ambitious goal of creating a highly automated “alien dreadnought” factory failed miserably.
Isaacson describes the gruelling process of machines grinding to a halt, forcing Musk to admit his mistake and reduce the amount of automation, even timing how long it took people to walk between workstations.
The American journalist also describes in vivid detail how Musk was constantly present at the Tesla factory during “production hell”.
“When redesigning the factory, Musk put the cubicles for the engineers right on the edge of the assembly lines, his own open desk was in the middle of it all, with no walls around him, and it had a pillow underneath so he could spend the night when he wanted.”
He also notes Musk’s discomfort with physical contact. “Musk’s awkwardness with emotional intimacy manifested itself physically. He would stiffen or recoil when someone patted his shoulder or tried to hug him.”
And while his acquisition of Twitter (now X) was undoubtedly a public affair, Isaacson notes that what should have been a business deal turned into a personal crusade. Musk told Isaacson, “Unless the woke-mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit, and anti-human in general, is stopped, civilisation will never become multiplanetary.”
“He would fall into foul moods that led to almost catatonic trances and depressive paralysis. Then, as if a switch flipped, he would become giddy and replay old Monty Python skits,” writes Isaacson.
Adding, “He has shown us the man behind the mask, the visionary who is trying to save the world and is exhibiting some startlingly callous behaviour. He has also shown us the geeky genius who is rushing to judgement, to hasty decisions that are rocking the boat… He was not just interested in space; he was obsessed with making humans a multiplanetary species, believing it was the best way to ensure our survival.”
Mannat Kaur is an intern who graduated from ThePrint School of Journalism
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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