Donald Trump’s re-election has stunned Democrats and left the global public struggling to understand its implications.

One of the most curious areas to ponder is the effect Trump campaign-backer and billionaire Elon Musk will have on shaping the president-elect’s agenda. The tech mogul spent more than $US130 million ($195 million) helping Trump to retake the White House.

Elon Musk may help Donald Trump choose which government employees to fire.Credit: AP

Trump, in his first conversation since re-election with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, included Musk on the phone call, Axios reported, though details of the conversation are unknown.

And while the conversation did not reportedly raise the Ukrainian’s anxiety about US support in a second Trump term, the power Musk has come to hold in Western security decisions bears watching.

Musk, the owner of electric carmaker Tesla and reusable rocket company SpaceX, has made billions of dollars in his pursuit of game-changing technology. He is also erratic, unpredictable and often defiant of convention.

In 2022, for example, in a kind of “F-around-and-find-out” moment, Musk’s criticism of Twitter morphed into a $US43 billion acquisition of........

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