Editor's note: The following column was first published in City Journal. With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office later this month, it’s worth considering how his coalition has changed. The source of the president-elect’s power—his voting base—is populist in nature. This was evident from the beginning. Trump rallied a new political cross-section and has, over the past decade, transformed the GOP into a multiracial, working-class party.
He managed to draw tens of thousands of people to stadiums and arenas and to command a fervent social media following that propagates his message. Trump’s populist appeal came with a downside: his voters and his vision lacked elite champions who could capably administer the White House and advance the MAGA agenda. There was Trump the president and Trump’s voters, but nothing in between. He lacked the necessary middle layer to control the bureaucracy and negotiate with outside power brokers. Now Trump has a second chance, and his coalition has seen a major shift: a growing segment of the technology industry has committed itself to the MAGA agenda. The most notable representative of this development is the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk. Hundreds of other tech leaders have followed suit, donating to Trump and backing his 2024 presidential campaign. The tragedy of Trump’s first presidency was that he was hamstrung on all sides. He was a man isolated in the White House with few outside allies and insufficient control over his administration. Things could be different this time. Some of this is doubtless self-serving. Technologists fear taxes, regulation, antitrust, and other restrictions that would likely have been part of Kamala Harris’ agenda. But part of it is ideologica