What World War II-era Britain can teach us about the next four years under Trump
Elon Musk didn’t take the oath of office on Jan. 20, but he might as well have. Donald Trump's newly appointed technocrat-in-chief is already wielding unprecedented power through the Department of Government Efficiency, an agency whose very name, DOGE, is taken from the very crypto-meme culture that made Musk a populist hero.
But the world's richest man isn't just reshaping federal agencies. His social media platform, X, has become a megaphone for far-right ideology. He was seen most recently disparaging the United Kingdom’s prime minister over immigration policy.
Welcome to Trumpism 2.0, where Silicon Valley efficiency meets nationalist fervor, and rallies give way to retweets.
President Trump's first administration mainstreamed xenophobia, misogyny, white supremacy and toxic nationalism. His final campaign rally at Madison Square Garden eerily echoed the 1939 German-American Bund's Nazi gathering in the same space — a reminder that far-right movements often outlive their charismatic leaders.
To understand what comes next in the U.S., we should look at the history of other authoritarian movements in democratic countries.
One overlooked place to start is pre-World War II Britain, where Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists threatened the country’s institutions. Mosley, like Trump, was a magnetic populist who capitalized on economic discontent and nationalistic fervor to build a movement tailored to his country’s anxieties. His rhetoric, most famously his “Britain First” slogan, borrowed heavily from Nazi ideology and resonated with far-right movements abroad.
While Mosley’s party eventually collapsed, its ideas did not. Instead, British fascism went underground, finding new life among elites who used their wealth and influence to further advance authoritarian goals.
This historical parallel offers a chilling lens through which to view Elon Musk’s recent political maneuvers.
Even as Trump reclaims the presidency, he is approaching the twilight of his political career. Figures like Musk represent the next and perhaps most enduring phase of Trumpism — one driven not just by populist fervor but by elite capture. Musk’s growing influence within Trump’s orbit, culminating in his creation of DOGE to reform federal agencies, signals a shift from Trumpism as a mass movement to one increasingly dominated by powerful business leaders with the resources to institutionalize its ideology for generations to come.
Similarly, in pre-war Britain, fascist ideas found refuge among the upper classes after the populist Mosley’s public defeat. Figures like the duke and duchess of Windsor and members of the Cliveden Set quietly worked to align Britain with Nazi Germany, using their wealth and connections to undermine democracy from within. Today, we see echoes of this dynamic in Musk’s alliance with other billionaire elites who have poured vast sums into reshaping American politics in Trump’s image. This new iteration of Trumpism is less about rallies and red MAGA hats than it is about consolidating power through institutions and economic incentives.
The Republican Party has already been transformed by Trump’s rhetoric and policies. Figures like JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy and Marjorie Taylor Greene exemplify a party that has fully embraced Trumpism as its core identity. But as Trump serves out what should be his second and final term, the mantle is being passed to figures like Musk who are poised to carry forward its legacy, not as populist demagogues but as technocratic authoritarians who blend far-right ideology with Silicon Valley-style governance.
The institutionalization of Trumpism through figures like Musk also marks a fundamental transformation in how authoritarian movements disseminate their message. While Trump relied heavily on mass rallies and traditional media coverage, Musk's approach leverages algorithmic amplification, data analytics and platform governance to shape political discourse. This technological evolution of authoritarianism makes it both more subtle and more pervasive, as it embeds itself in the very infrastructure of modern communication and commerce.
The question is no longer whether Trumpism will survive beyond Trump. The question is how Trumpism will continue to evolve and whether American democracy is prepared for its next phase.
As history shows us, movements like these do not simply disappear when their figureheads fade away. Instead, they adapt, often becoming more dangerous as they gain institutional support from elites who see opportunities to benefit their own interests.
Lauren Young, Ph.D., is a Yale political scientist.