In August of 2024, Elon Musk held a conversation with President Donald Trump on X. Almost more remarkable than the fact that it received 73 million views at the time—and almost as remarkable as the fact that by the following day the conversation had logged over one billion combined views and impressions—was the specter it presented to the country of a once (and possibly future) president talking so amiably and lengthily with one of the world’s most impactful businessmen. Commercial titans and political leaders have not always gotten along this well. In fact, as presidential historian Tevi Troy recounts in his terrific new book The Power and the Money, relations between presidents and tycoons have often been downright frosty. But whether their interactions have been warm or cold, CEO-commander-in-chief relationships have been one of the most important—and yet surprisingly under-examined—areas of American political and commercial life.