By Peter Laffin, National Catholic Register, Dec. 16, 2024
Peter Laffin is a staff writer for the National Catholic Register and a contributor at the Washington Examiner. His work has appeared in The Catholic Herald, The Catholic Thing, and RealClearPolitics
To what extent are his values and priorities aligned with the teachings of the Church?
President-elect Donald Trump joined dignitaries from around the world in Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. It surprised no one that he was accompanied by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk — the two have been inseparable for months.
To be sure, a wealthy individual orbiting a president is nothing new in American politics. But Musk’s unprecedented wealth — he recently became the first person in history to amass a fortune of more than $400 billion — and his penchant for altering the course of history raises the stakes of the partnership. The enigmatic tech mogul, who possesses his own satellite internet system (Starlink) and spacecraft company (SpaceX), in addition to owning the world’s premier communication platform (X, formerly known as Twitter), operates less as a private citizen than as something approximating an independent nation. …