WTF Was Elon Musk Doing Meeting With India’s Modi?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the United States, but before meeting with President Trump, he met with someone arguably more powerful: Elon Musk.

At Blair House in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Musk and Modi discussed “space, mobility, technology and innovation,” according to a post from Modi’s X account. Modi also met with three of Musk’s children.

Several parts of Musk’s businesses concern India. The tech mogul is trying to get access for his Starlink satellite internet service in the country, and is fighting with Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who has competing interests. Musk also is trying to sell low-cost Tesla vehicles in India and get past the country’s tariffs on electric vehicles.

All of this has prompted critics to question what exactly Musk’s role is in the federal government—and why he’s meeting with foreign leaders. Senator Chris Murphy pointed out some of his conflicts of interests, and the self-serving nature of his meeting.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is supposedly meant to reduce costs and streamline government for the benefit of the American people. If the tech mogul is meeting leaders like Modi in Washington, D.C., he is effectively acting like a diplomat, as Murphy noted, but in his own interests rather than those of the country. The fact that Modi is meeting with Musk before Trump suggests that the fascist Indian leader sees the fascist tech CEO as more important than the president.