Call it government via the manosphere. The men Donald Trump surrounded himself with on stage for his victory speech had one thing in common – they are all figures of influence in the network of male online communities that has sprung up “as a response to feminism, female empowerment and the alienating forces of neoliberalism”, according to The Conversation.

King of them all was Elon Musk, a hero-figure of the manosphere for good reason. He is the richest man in the world, the genius billionaire innovator who has pushed the boundaries of business-possibility in electric vehicles and in space travel, to name his two biggest commercial ventures.

Elon Musk on the campaign trail for Trump in Pennsylvania.Credit: Getty Images

The derogatory cliché of the manosphere-dwelling man is that he is a computer-obsessed, socially awkward nerd living in his mother’s basement, gifted at gaming but incapable of talking to girls. Musk represents both the embodiment and the transcendence of this stereotype – an oddball science dork who has turned his quirks into superpowers.

In the best tradition of American plutocrats, Musk is so rich and so eccentric that he has out-Alpha’ed the Alpha guys. Once, he was a social outsider. Now, not only is he the most popular guy in the room, he owns the room.

Just look at the crowing he has done since the Trump victory on X, the social media website he owns. As the prospects of Trump’s presidential victory firmed on Tuesday, Musk posted a meme of himself carrying a kitchen sink into the White House, with the........

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