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Elon Musk’s time in the Trump administration was short, but by no means merciful. As the 130 days of Musk’s “special employee” status in the White House expire, the world’s richest man is leaving the government with shattered public approval, furious investors, and a to-go bag of grift and corruption to ensure the whole ordeal was worth his time.
On Wednesday night, Musk wrote on X: “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.”
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk added.
The full legacy of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its role in the early days of Trump’s second administration will likely take years to articulate in full. As of now, what is clear is that Musk overpromised, under delivered, and executed his mandate to “reduce wasteful spending” in such a manner that the cost of the resulting chaos, backtracking, lawsuits, and downstream damage may end up wiping out any theoretical gains made by the “department.”
Even harder to pinpoint will be the extent of Musk’s personal and corporate opportunism while elbow deep in the viscera of the federal government. Excluding English kings, it’s hard to conceive of any figure in the history of American governance who was granted such wide-reaching, unchecked, and unaccountable power to meddle with the mandates of elected representatives. Despite acting as a superseding Cabinet official — to the point where the president was forced to clarify that members of his Cabinet did actually have authority over their agencies — as a special government employee (SGE), Musk was spared the rigors of a confirmation hearing.
While some SGEs are required to submit public financial disclosures, Musk’s was filed confidentially. This despite his known financial relationships with the Trump campaign, his foreign business relationships, and his various disputes with government oversight agencies that interact with his companies.
When asked how the administration would handle any potential conflicts of interest, the White House claimed that Musk would self-police should any arise.
He did not.
In 130 days, Musk’s team at DOGE fired a slew of employees at federal departments and agencies investigating his companies — including Tesla, Neuralink, and SpaceX — on a variety of issues, including safety violations, employee lawsuits, violations of securities laws, and medical research malpractice.
Musk has also worked to intertwine the work of various federal agencies with the products produced by his companies. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that DOGE had been using a customized version of Musk’s AI bot Grok to analyze government data. In March, the Federal Aviation Administration began approving the use of Starlink on commercial aircraft, and reports emerged claiming the FAA was considering canceling a $2 billion dollar contract with Verizon in favor of the Musk-owned company. In one of the most unforgettable moments of the new administration, Trump staged an improvised Tesla showroom in front of the White House and vamped like a used-car salesman when Musk’s government antics began to tank the stock price of his electric-vehicle company.
The billionaire is leaving government not only because the time he can legally spend as a SGE has expired, but because the leadership of his flagship companies — Tesla and SpaceX — have seemingly demanded he stop using his “chainsaw for bureaucracy” to destroy their public image and refocus his attention on their needs.
As Musk slithers away from his stint as the effective co-president of the nation, his social media pontification about the need for “transparency” in government rings hollower than ever. The billionaire has installed a web of loyalists throughout the federal government who will continue to work on his behalf even as he attempts to lay low for the sake of his tech empire, and there is still no oversight mechanism to ensure public accountability. It may have only been 130 days, but Musk will likely go down in history as one of the most destructive unelected bureaucrats in American history.
