President Musk II
Elon Musk has been making the rounds of Washington, giving exit interviews as he steps back from his Trump ordained role of destroying as much of the federal government as possible in the shortest amount of time. No one, perhaps not even Elon, knows why he is leaving a role he so obviously relishes.
Who else would gleefully prance around a stage carrying a chainsaw and celebrating “feeding the United States Agency for International Development into the woodchipper?” That act alone left poor people around the world to starve while food already purchased by USAID from American famers rotted in warehouses. What kind of a monster does something like that and cheers about it?
Musk is stepping back from his role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as his 130-day limit as a special government employee approaches. Beyond that, Musk would be required by law to file detailed financial statements to allow vetting for, among other things, conflicts of interest. Since he owns and/or runs SpaceX and its subsidiary Skylink, Tesla, X (previously known as Twitter), xAI, The Boring Company, Neuralink Corporation, and others all doing business with the government he would not want an investigation into the many conflicts his ties to Trump’s government present.
Since virtually everything Musk and his DOGE marauders have done in three months of rampaging through the government bureaucracy has been illegal, I’m not sure he has anything to fear if he just stays on and refuses to fill out the disclosure forms. At the same time, I suspect it doesn’t matter. I fear Musk can log in to any computer system the government has and can download any information he wants.
Should a government ready to follow laws and regulations on privacy ever get back in control, it will have to audit every computer in the government. I’m sure the DOGE people have installed secret privileged user accounts and passwords and ensured backdoor access to all systems.
Neither Trump’s Department of Justice nor the Republican controlled Congress is going to complain. Musk’s main reason for leaving may well be the pressure he feels from the stockholders of Tesla and his employees. Tesla’s financial struggles can be seen every day on the stock market as sales of Tesla autos plumet in part because of political backlash and protests directed against Musk.
Musk contributed $250 million to the Trump 2024 campaign and to local Republican campaigns, helping the party achieve control of both houses of Congress. The creation of DOGE was Musk’s reward. Musk presented his plans in February at one of the strangest news conferences ever held in the Oval Office of the President.
Flanked by two children, his son named “X Æ A-12,” “X” for short, and Donnie Trump, Musk promised reporters DOGE would produce $2 trillion in savings. He pledged total transparency, and he swore that the government was riddled with fraud, corruption, and lazy, unproductive workers. He also claimed people over 150 years old were receiving Social Security checks. He did not provide evidence to back up his claims, and none has been provided since.
Musk had already inherited Trump’s most obvious attribute. Call it living in the world of “alternate facts.” Or call it what it is, lying.
The actual DOGE savings have been far lower, with DOGE itself estimating $160 billion. Despite these cuts, government spending has actually increased by 6.3% compared to the previous year. And judge after judge has found Musk’s actions to be illegal and ordered reversals. These cases are on appeal and still playing out in the courts. If there are costs associated with reversing the DOGE actions, and legal fees, Musk’s tenure may lose money for the taxpayers.
So, who is this guy? Elon Musk has publicly shared that he has “Asperger’s Syndrome”, a form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He has also mentioned using “ketamine” to manage his depression. His biographer, Seth Abramson, has raised concerns about Musk’s mental health, citing stress, mental illness, and heavy drug use. Abramson has suggested that Musk’s condition could have significant public implications given his influential roles. Media/Internet mogul Barry Diller has suggested that Elon Musk exhibits traits associated with megalomania. Critics point to his erratic behavior, self-aggrandizement, and increasing detachment from his earlier progressive ideals.
Megalomania
- a mania (see mania sense 2) for great or grandiose performance
- a delusional mental illness that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur
I’m no psychiatrist. But neither is Barry Diller.
####
Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings 
Pingback: Two Megalomaniacs Walk into a Bar…… | Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings