> The term has also been used against Elon Musk by critics of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The term is predicated on government doing the right thing (and the persuasive private interest doing the wrong thing). History furnishes thousands of examples. In Musk's case it's the opposite. He's helping prevent government doing the wrong thing: unnecessarily burdening productive endeavour (e.g. internet, rockets, tunnels, electric vehicles) and interesting work (e.g. science and exploration) through overregulation, as well as wasting tax payer money.

In this moment many people dislike Elon. But history will give a clearer picture of whether their dislike was for legitimate reasons (like the alleged 'state capture'), or less legitimate reasons (like the recent US election outcome, or clickbaity news stories).