From Mamdani to Musk: the cult of the visionary puts people power to test

November 6, 2025 — 3.57pm

Among the several popularity contests in the US this week, there are two that rise to the level of being really consequential.

The first is the New York mayoral race, won by a democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, with his promises of taking from the rich to help the poor. The second is the impending shareholder vote on whether to make America’s richest man, Elon Musk a trillionaire.

The fact that Mamdani won in a landslide, and Musk is odds on to get the tick from Tesla shareholders for his unfathomably large pay deal on Thursday (US time) hinge on one thing. While their respective views and ideologies are poles apart, both Mamdani are Musk are supreme salesmen.

Mamdani won the hearts of New Yorkers campaigning on the cost of living crisis that has rendered the city financially out of reach for many of its natives. He campaigned as the city’s saviour – despite the reality that many of his policy aspirations will remain just that.

Zohran Mamdani speaks after winning the mayoral election in New York. Credit: AP

Aspiration is a crucial ingredient for Musk and Tesla’s board as well as they campaign to get Musk’s trillion dollar payday across the line. The trillion dollars are contingent on Musk achieving a bunch of financial targets – that are unlikely to ever become a reality.

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Mamdani and Musk’s respective races also reflect the growing allure of selling hope to the masses.

The 34-year-old Mamdani firstly tapped into the generational divide between the ruling establishment class of baby boomers and the young, and then the growing inequality between the city’s wealthy and those struggling with rents, food and childcare.

At its heart his mantra was a Robin Hood style redistribution – taking from the very rich and increasing taxes on large companies to give to those struggling with the cost of living.

For the New York masses wrestling with affordability concerns, Mamdani pitched a message of hope. (Incidentally it was also the affordability platform on which Trump successfully crusaded in 2024.)

It is understandable that the masses bought it, while the clutch of elite investment bankers, who sit atop billion dollar organisations based in the epicentre of financial power, spent millions backing Mamdani’s adversaries.

But executing on the laudable campaign promises, once the joyous tears shed during Mamdani’s rousing victory speech dry up, will be a test. So New Yorkers may be in for a reality check.

Elon Musk clearly wants to be the general of his army of robots.Credit: Getty

Meanwhile, Musk’s campaign – which is also high on promises – could be characterised as legal extortion.

Sure it is about the potential upside financial rewards that Tesla shareholders would receive if he can meet his lofty financial goals. But it comes with an ominous warning about what Musk will/may do if he loses the shareholder vote. Leave the company.

Tesla’s chairwomen, the Australian Robyn Denholm, has been selling the message of the risk of losing Musk as chief executive or at least having him diverted into other areas of his personal businesses.

It is further evidence of the degree to which it is a captive board and one that is convinced there is no greater tech entrepreneur in the world than Musk.

Sure he successfully got the first profitable electric vehicle company in the world off the ground, but his $US44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now called X, hasn’t been a financial triumph and his ambitious plans to populate the world with robots and self-driving taxis are very much a work in progress.

So attempting to jump over a series of financial hurdles, including increasing the company’s market capitalisation from today’s $US1.45 trillion ($2.2 trillion) to $US8.5 trillion seems like a stretch.

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It’s the metaphorical reinvention of the wheel, and the chances of that happening hinge on Musk pressing pause on his passion projects which include meddling in US government affairs, exterminating wokeness, and supposedly saving western civilisation. (Incidentally one of his more recent distractions was taking pot shots at Mamdani, branding him a “charismatic swindler” and urging New Yorkers to vote for political rival Andrew Cuomo.)

Governance experts and several large shareholders are not buying the message that Musk and Tesla’s board are selling – citing asymmetrical risks and massive shareholder dilution.

But there are still plenty (and likely the majority) of shareholders who view him as a deity rather than deride him as a grotesque symbol of tech excess.

They bought into his visionary message and are sticking with it.

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