Why Both Trump and Musk Are Führers Instead of Leaders
26 October 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
The difference between Hitler as Führer and Hitler as Chancellor (a change that 89.93% of Germany’s voters approved of in the 10 August 1934 referendum — effectively ending any pretense that the nation was a democracy and doing this ‘democratically’) was the assumption that to be Führer was to be irreplaceable so that the organization’s success depended upon that individual and would fail under any other leader, whereas when Hitler had been only Chancellor he was merely replaceable. That was the Führer assumption, and 90% of Germany’s voters went for it.
On October 23rd, Yahoo News headlined “Elon Musk presses for $1 trillion pay plan because he needs to influence Tesla’s future ‘robot army’” and reported that Musk’s presentation to his investors said
“My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future? That’s my biggest concern,” Musk said on the call.
“It’s called compensation, but it’s not like I’m going to go spend the money,” Musk said. “It’s just, if we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army? ... I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”
He was telling his investors that when he becomes replaced the corporation could go to hell. They are investing in him — not in the corporation. This is his argument for them to grant him a promise that if he continues to run the company and the corporation succeeds as much as he is telling them it will succeed if he continues to run it, then they will pay him a trillion-dollar bonus. Or else, they might as well fire him. He is implicitly saying to them: “If I get replaced, your risk will be increased more than if you grant me this promise to enormously boost my profits (at your expense) if the corporation meets my targets under my continued control over it.”
He is presenting himself as the irreplaceable man.
Hitler also did.
Trump also does (and this is why many people expect him to try to find a way to run for a third term).
The same news-report about Musk’s Tesla presentation also said that “analysts believe Musk’s new package, which could be worth as much as $1 trillion, will be approved by shareholders.” If they do that, would it be faith-based investing (just like the 1934 German vote was faith-based politics)?
So, is this the right time to sell — or even to short-sell — Tesla stock?
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.