These Are Trump's X-Men | Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

[Music] First and foremost, the world's premier engineer and inventor is a man clearly and demonstrably capable of doing six impossible things at the same time. This speaks primarily of his intelligence. Musk is exceptionally one in a billion, high in general cognitive ability and openness. A true genius, albeit in the technical manner, that is an observation, not a criticism.

With regard to personality, he's not particularly extroverted, tilting I would say in the opposite direction, although not exceptionally so. He is moderate in neuroticism, carrying a fair burden of depression-like pain with him, not least because of a truly rough childhood, which he eludes to but does not make a show of. There is some withdrawal there, run roughshod over by his brilliance and openness, and also some volatility evidenced in his behavior on X online, somewhat reminiscent of Trump himself. Musk is also a worker and manager—hard and dedicated, far beyond the norm.

So exceptionally high in conscientiousness and agreeable enough, particularly on the compassionate side, to be very pro-human. He is, however, no pushover; he is not particularly polite and can and does make the difficult judgments of discrimination that allow him to continually operate and maintain multiple extremely large, demanding, stunningly diverse, and truly cutting-edge enterprises. His staggering intelligence and business acumen means that he brings something near miraculous to the Trump X-Men team.

I would vote for Trump as president if I could vote—and I can't, because I'm Canadian. Forgive me for that. Just because Musk has agreed to play a role in any new administration that Trump might bring about, he has even wittily proposed to head up a new Department of Governmental Efficiency, a phrase whose initials, DoG, indicate the willingness—in an inside joke manner—to do only good every day, as well as signifying a bemused but knowing dog whose image has become a widespread meme.

It has been my diligent and hopeful observation that Musk is a good man, or at least a terribly complicated man trying very hard to be good, which is all we could truly hope if we were the least bit realistic about human nature and our own prospects. Could Musk do to the American deep state what he did for Twitter? Could he prune and cut so the Republic could revitalize? Stranger things have happened in the course of human history. Javier Milei is trying something similarly demanding in Argentina.

The US OFA has a remarkable capacity to reinvent itself. Someone like Musk playing a key role in the governance of The Greatest Show on Earth is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; that's an adventure by anyone's standards.

I have met with the next member of this group in question, Mr. Robert F. Kennedy, five times, speaking with and listening to him at some length each time. He has the near-manic energy and loquaciousness of those with exceptional verbal intelligence and the intensely focused concentration that pushes people who have that proclivity beyond even their own limits in pursuit of a goal. He's dreadfully well-informed, a veritable master of historical minutiae in a manner nonetheless relevant to today's concerns.

He is also someone who, like Trump and Musk, can and does draw the overall picture accurately, and even in a somewhat prophetic manner. He is fearless and dedicated, having stood up and successfully against even the largest giants of the proto-fascist modern State and has single-handedly drawn public attention to what is genuinely a health crisis of gargantuan proportions, despite its invisibility on the political stage until the current time.

He's also someone once bitten, twice shy: a seriously wounded apostate, again like Trump and Musk, as well as Tulsi Gabbard from his own original favored party, the Democrats. When I first spoke with Mr. Kennedy on my YouTube channel, I asked him the same question I always ask the many Democrat leaders I have spoken with, most privately unwilling, as they generally are, to risk being seen in public with the likes of me.

The question: when do you think the left goes too far? His answer to that, in interview one, at the very beginning of his presidential march, was, "I'm trying to run a campaign that brings people together rather than a campaign that tries, you know, that is based upon, you know, that kind of tribalism of condemning people for ideologies that I don't necessarily agree with."

I had my doubts about the suitability of that answer in the long run, having experienced precisely what happens when the left goes too far in my own private and personal life. Nonetheless, on that occasion, I let the question lie. I can tell you, however, that Mr. Kennedy had plenty to say on that topic when we spoke on YouTube on our second occasion. The UR, while Democrat contender for president, had by that time experienced running hard and headlong into precisely what I had intimated in the form of my initial and purposefully leading question.

In consequence, Robert F. detailed for at least an hour his utter dismay with the power-mad, corrupt, ideologically possessed shenanigans of the progressive left—the very force that could continue its current domination of the public discourse and scene if Ms. Kamala Harris and the shadowy and unknown forces behind her ascent to power managed to maintain their positions come November.

What is Kennedy like as a personality? Extroverted like Trump, although perhaps not as much, so Trump is hard to equal, let alone top in that regard. Not without his pain and negative emotion like Musk. Not too agreeable, although not at all narcissistic, despite his markedly forceful assertiveness in opinion and as a speaker. This was evidenced not least by my comparative silence, particularly during our second YouTube discussion.

I'm a very talkative, verbally assertive person for better or worse, but Mr. Kennedy had the stage for the vast majority of our time together. That was as it should be, in my opinion, given the circumstances; but it is still something that does not happen to me very often, even when I intend it to.

Does this mean that RFK is inappropriately forward, self-aggrandizing, self-centered? Not my experience. One anecdote quite tellingly reveals why RFK Jr. and I encountered one another one evening in a restaurant. I happened to be dining in during my last tour; I was there with Dr. Phil in a private room in the back of the building.

Mr. Kennedy happened into the establishment, was informed that we were also there, and sent someone forward to ask if he could come and say hello. The fact that he so politely sought permission—since no offense would have been taken had he not—was something I noted, as was his somewhat near-apologetic entrance, asking the two of us very graciously to forgive the intrusion. An intrusion it was not as we were happy to see him and pleased that he dropped in.

He could have just taken that for granted, and even justly so, but he didn't. A trivial happening, you might object, but I think not. Instead of presuming, he displayed all the social niceties that might be hoped for and more. I saw evidence of the same proclivity every time I met him.

It's not all about RFK Jr., and that is a good thing to see, given the fame and family reputation that has been part and parcel of his life ever since day one. This is not to say that Kennedy, like Trump and Musk, is without his eccentricities, but as the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once so perspicaciously noted, great men are seldom credited with their stupidities.

RFK Jr. is a singular person, with everything that entails on the positive and negative side. He has a somewhat conspiratorial mindset, which, given the means of demise of his uncle and father, is eminently understandable. Furthermore, there are indeed strange things afoot in the world today, such that Kennedy's suspicion on various fronts may be well warranted. Nonetheless, it's still a tendency that has to be carefully held in check; better to assume incompetence than malevolence, for example.

And adept pattern recognizers, of which Kennedy, like Trump, is certainly one, can be plagued by false positives—the tendency to see something that is, in fact, not there. But the tectonic plates are moving under our culture at an ever-increasing rate, and Kennedy's skepticism, his ability to see the forest and the trees, could easily prove something of great advantage to the American people, prone as they are now to manipulation by the looming quasi-fascist forces of the utopian authoritarian wannabe globalist state.

Imagine for a moment that Musk can bring efficiency to the federal government and that Kennedy, with his skepticism and willingness to battle Goliaths however large, can seriously address the twin and terribly pervasive and serious problems of obesity and insulin resistance and their terrible spin-offs. These two things alone would be well worth much attendant risk, in my estimation.

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The last time I saw Tulsi Gabbard was in DC during a discussion hosted in this strangest of all possible worlds by Russell Brand. I had spoken with her at length, as in the case of Kennedy, on my podcast, although only once.

What is Lieutenant Colonel Gabbard like on the personality side? Moderately extroverted, higher in assertiveness than enthusiasm, she is no giggling girl. Perhaps her military experience mitigated against taking that sometimes charming but often too easy route. Markedly low in neuroticism, as befits a woman who pursued a true military career.

Agreeableness: Ms. Gabbard cares genuinely about those she served and continues to serve, although I would say she does so in the temperamentally conservative manner that is part patriotism and part respect for the intrinsic dignity and worth of every person, rather than in the oft-cloying, false, and morally self-righteous manner that so often characterizes the so-called allies of the oppressed on the side of the progressive left.

She's also very smart, without the more showy brilliance of Ramaswamy, who we still have to discuss—down to earth in that intelligence and is as conscientious as you would hope an ex-military member and influential political leader might be. Gabbard is the sort of woman who would make of someone a favorite aunt, a close confidant, a trusted friend. If you wanted advice, she'd be your pick.

She doesn't have the stunning entrepreneurial flair of Musk, Kennedy, or Ramaswamy, but her presence on the X-Men team would add to that excess of plasticity some true stability. The other personality mediatethe this is particularly important when the team in question will be tasked with so much administrative and managerial responsibility.

It is great to have someone around like VC, for example, who spins off new ideas at a constant rate, but I bet on Gabbard to implement effectively and to pay attention to all the details, although Musk also excels at that. To walk the walk as well as talk the talk, she's a very difficult person not to admire, not to feel lesser than in her presence.

She's solid, competent, straightforward, admirable, brave, patriotic, and tough. She'd be a truly thoughtful presence in the Trump X-Men team, which might otherwise tilt too hard toward the entrepreneurial and revolutionary. Slow down, gentlemen; take some time and think.

She has as well the emotional resilience not to panic, even under pressure, not to claim that the sky is falling and rush around madly and counterproductively, merely for the show of work. It doesn't hurt as well that she is the epitome of feminine grace and attractiveness. Wonder Woman indeed, borrowing, if we can, from the DC world, the comic books and not the city.

I could certainly envision her as the first truly deserving female president of the United States. This brings us to one Vivek Ramaswamy. He and I recorded a number of podcasts, which I greatly enjoyed, that started before he was running for office when we discussed another notable accomplishment—the establishment of a Strive Asset Management fund designed to give investors an alternative to the mongers of ESG stakeholder capitalism, who are doing everything they can to sneak a particularly pernicious form of top-down centrally planned socialism into the free market system so they can pretend to be virtuous—in a manner hypothetically unlike their greedy, by-implication peers.

Not long after embarking on his daring campaign for president, he began a habit of approximately quarterly appearances on my YouTube channel. That effort, despite its unlikelihood given his unknown status as a political contender, unfolded very successfully, bringing both the candidate and his ideas to a wide public audience and proving his credibility as a young and rising alternative on the political scene.

What can I say about Vivek's personality? He is extroverted, both on the assertive and enthusiastic side, characterized by more positive emotion overall than anyone else we have discussed. He's also very high in openness, both to ideas and as far as I could tell on the artistic-cultural side, although perhaps more the former than the latter. He shares those traits with Trump, Musk, and Kennedy, although less so than Gabbard, who is still far above average in such regard.

He's more polite than Trump, certainly more measured in his speech, less rough and provocative, although also less witty—although certainly not dull. I would hazard a guess as well that he is less compassionate and people-centered than both Trump and Musk. Ramaswamy tends to stay in the realm of ideas and is clearly motivated on the political side primarily by intellectual curiosity, as well as the desire to see things done better.

He appears low in neuroticism and is highly stress-tolerant, as those are the same thing. Unlikely to withdraw like Trump, less depressive than Musk or Kennedy, but also less volatile than Trump, quite stable temperamentally on the emotional side. That's a good feature in a crisis, as noted in the case of Gabbard.

I suspect he is high in conscientiousness as well, particularly on the side of industriousness, which is half that trait; the other half being orderliness. Ramaswamy is very successful for a comparatively young man, and he has done that in consequence of his own efforts. This is not a fate that befalls people who fail to work dreadfully hard.

Cautions with regard to Vivek mostly to do with his youth. Mr. Ramaswamy is accustomed to being the smartest person in the room and perhaps the most successful. This gives him a certain brashness. When I watched him in the first round of the Republican primaries, for example, he was the candidate who received the most positive responses from the audience as well as the most negative.

The same was true, arguably, of his compatriots on the stage. I thought he risked, in his provocative but undeniably interesting approach, some unnecessary enmity from those same people, and it is not clear to me that this was a good long-term strategy, given the high possibility of sharing a bed with at least some of them, metaphorically speaking, in the future.

I would say that as his campaign progressed, he became more moderate, more careful in his criticism of his fellow Republicans, but also more measured overall in his utterances. This is a sign of someone humble enough to learn despite his confidence, and that is a good thing. He is, above all, like Musk, Kennedy, and Gabbard, cognitively gifted, and that is also a good thing.

Complex jobs require highly intelligent people to manage them. This is true of any job where the demands constantly shift, and governance at the highest level certainly qualifies. His intelligence showed most particularly in his ability to bring a genuine intellectual excitement to the Republican stage, in addition to accounting for his preternatural early business success.

If Ramaswamy went bad, became disillusioned, resentful, angry, it might be in the narcissistic direction, like Trump, like so many in the political entertainment and media realm. But the fact that he is part of this team of high performers means, number one, that he will be required, in the best possible way, to watch his words and actions, and number two, that he will be surrounded by the kind of wise counsel that can help him mature into a person even more remarkable than he is now.

His youth might be regarded as a hindrance in so far as he is less experienced than he might be, even arguably somewhat overconfident, but it is also a marked advantage in that Vivek is not living in 1995 or even 2005 and is very much part of the online digital generation during the most rapid time of technological transformation in human history.

I have not yet met JD Vance, although we have a podcast planned. I have read his book, however, much of it twice. I also watched his debate with Governor Walz, the Democrat VP candidate, very carefully. The first thing to understand about Vance, like Vivek, like Kennedy, like Musk, is his intelligence. You don't pull yourself out of the serious backwoods of Appalachia and graduate from law school at Yale without some 95th or even 99th percentile intelligence.

He also appears mature for his age, even more so than Vivek, for whom he is perhaps a match in raw cognitive power. I suspect, as well, that JD is highly conscientious, as it is that trait second only to intelligence, which best predicts upward mobility. He is certainly the poster child for the American dream in the land where anyone can become president.

He is as well extroverted, particularly on the assertiveness side rather than enthusiastic, and appears both more compassionate and perhaps more polite than Trump and Vivek. Vance writes with real love of the people in his life in "Hillbilly Elegy," which is genuinely a people rather than idea-centered book. That is not a criticism, by the way; merely an observation.

As I have already commented positively on his intelligence, I think the Republican vice-presidential contender will bring a whole other level of concern for the working class to the Trump X-Men team, not least because he is not dismissive of his past, as so many who have escaped upward tend to be, joining the elites in their contempt for the workers and the inhabitants of the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

I detected a profound absence of such dismissive sentiment in "Hillbilly Elegy," a work that was instead characterized by the substantive gratitude of the well-integrated personality. Vance is also a very good speaker; that's the extraversion, as well as raw cognitive power—fast on his feet and also no pushover despite his people-centered outlook.

He holds his temper very well, so he appears low in the neuroticism aspect of volatility, more stable in that regard than the Donald, whom he defended in his debate better than the former president managed for himself. He has also overcome many serious obstacles in his uphill climb, thus he appears low as well in withdrawal.

Vance is another person who, like Tulsi Gabbard, is unlikely to panic under difficult conditions. This is a very positive attribute in a leader. He is another person likely to be a steadying managerial hand balancing the dangerous brilliance of some of the other members of the Trump cadre.