This notion, Dark MAGA, the Dark Enlightenment, has been around for awhile, and bound to attract some attention at the moment.
“The dark MAGA conspiracy where Musk destroys Trump and Democracy”
We are perhaps not far off from seeing the Dark MAGA conspiracy theory involving Musk come to life. It goes like this: A secret cabal of tech bros was plotting to usurp Trump and turn the United States into a giant company run by a CEO they would install in his place. The whole concept started to gain traction after JD Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
Vance wasn’t Trump’s choice. Donald wanted Fox News host
Maria Bartiromo.
Musk wanted Vance, and so did PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Their multi-million-dollar campaign war chest was dependent on the choice that Trump got pushed into.
According to the “Dark MAGA” or “Dark Enlightenment” theory, Vance was groomed by Silicon Valley billionaires as Trump’s successor. He was their man in government. He was their sleeper.
The theory has its roots in Musk and Thiel’s involvement in PayPal, the company that launched their fortunes. Other PayPal executives went on to lead other tech firms as part of a so-called “PayPal Mafia.”
The supposed guru of the Dark Enlightenment movement was Curtis Yarvin, 51, a Brown-educated, one-time pony-tailed computer coder. He preaches that the media and academia are a “Cathedral” that secretly controls the country. Harvard was the deep state ruler. The
New York Times was the devil. You can see where this is going.
Under the alias of “Mencius Moldbug”, Yarvin wrote a 120,000-word blog called ‘An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives.’ It lobbed a hand grenade at the heart of democracy as long ago as 2008.
At that time, the U.S. was enthralled by the idea of “Hope,” instilled by the election of Barack Obama as president.
Democracy was at the very heart of Obama’s philosophy.
Yarvin believed differently. He argued that America should be run by a “monarchy” presided over by a dictator CEO.
Federal employees would be fired in such quantities that the government would no longer be manageable. Elections would be deemed obsolete. Policies would engender fear and distract the population. The Dark MAGA or Dark Enlightenment theory says it is the remit of the tech billionaires to run the world because they are the only ones with the resources and the know-how to fix it. To Yarvin, who likes to philosophize in computer idioms, democracy was “outdated software” and government needed a “reboot.”
For years, Yarvin’s views were marginalized and ridiculed.
Then, in 2025, they began to become a reality.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, an adviser to Trump, has
citedYarvin, as has Musk. Yarvin, often referred to in this geeky techie circle as the “Dark Elf” philosopher, was invited to the inauguration. He has appeared on shows with Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk. Steve Bannon is an admirer.
His theories became Executive Orders. They found a home in the Trump administration.
But Trump was the messenger of chaos. Musk was the arbiter.
Some of Washington’s biggest institutions have been briefed about Dark Enlightenment. They are taking it seriously. We may have expected the great bromance between the president and his prince to end, but few expected it to be so vicious.
