The recent departure of Tesla’s innovator from a government role reflects another twist in the bureaucratic saga. There was a heated spat in the corridors of West Wing a month ago, in which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shockingly lambasted Elon Musk, letting their disagreement echo to the point where President Donald Trump could not ignore. The contentious point between Bessent and Musk revolved around the decision-making authority for the next IRS leader, suggesting a deeper disagreement about Musk’s fight against beauracracy. Without getting an approval from Bessent, Musk had hastily finalised his own candidate for the position, fueling the already raging fire between them.
Previously, the argument had sparked near the Oval Office, before making its way past the Roosevelt Room and eventually ending up around the corner in the National Security Advisor’s quarters. Musk had blamed Bessent of having managed two unprofitable hedge funds. As their argument reached its peak, Musk, in defiance, asked Bessent to speak louder when they were nearly face-to-face.
Musk had initially brought a wave of disruptive energy to Washington, armed with a vision to overhaul the existing political system, get rid of any inefficiency in the federal workforce, and optimistically announced the intended saving of $2 trillion for the taxpayers. He embodied the renegade role perfectly, wearing his Tech Support T-shirt, vowing to radically change the functioning of the government, and crusading against ‘woke mind virus’, all while helming the newly established ‘Department of Government Efficiency’.
Throughout several weeks, he and his team of DOGE enthusiasts haphazardly navigated through multiple government agencies, raising alarms among civil servants, unnaturally demanding highly confidential information, and leaving a trail of their activities even on employees’ desks. However, as his tenure in Washington nears its conclusion, Musk seems to be dismantling his relationships within the Trump administration, having made limited alliances and rubbed many government department heads the wrong way.
It appears his team fell drastically short of finding the copious savings that he had alleged. Legal obstructions sabotaged various other initiatives. Some cabinet secretaries rejected DOGE’s drastic expenditure reductions as they believed that such moves compromised crucial services. Concurrently, Musk’s fortune dwindled, his corporate interests took a plunge on the market, and he gradually became the subject of frequent whispers and mockery.
Musk seems to be shifting his focus back to his conventional roles as the head of companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and X only four months after he marched into Washington vowing significant changes. During a call with investors, Musk revealed he was planning to spend one or two days weekly, concentrating on DOGE’s affairs, closely mirroring his approach towards overseeing his numerous companies.
The next week, he inferred about reducing his involvement in governmental matters further, informing reporters of a biweekly visit to Washington. On the previous day, he announced at a virtual interview for the Qatar Economic Forum that he doesn’t feel the need to invest further in politics, although he didn’t completely rule out future political involvements. ‘I believe I’ve done enough,’ he claimed.
Despite stepping back, Musk still has a close relationship with Trump, who still seems fond of his billionaire patron, according to those close to Trump. However, federal leaders have mostly welcomed Musk’s decision to shift his focus elsewhere, liberating themselves to undo his cuts in their departments or implement DOGE-style changes on a more comfortable pace and their own terms.
High-ranking officials did not appreciate Musk’s presumption of superiority, who constantly boasted about his intention to drastically reduce their ‘kingdoms’ into wood chips. Some of his initiatives, such as his demand in February that all federal employees articulate their weekly accomplishment to their respective supervisors in an email, were largely ignored.
A source close to Trump pondered, ‘How many were let go because they did not comply with the weekly task bulletins?’). ‘I believe it’s time for all of us to move beyond this particular chapter of the administration.’, they concluded.
The loud exchange of words between Musk and Bessent became an instantaneous subject of office gossip, as well as a barometer for measuring loyalties within the MAGA universe. A significant number of administration members witnessed the spectacle firsthand, with even more people hearing the story from secondary or tertiary sources. (Some details of the story had previously been covered by The New York Times and Axios.)
While Musk anticipated a trap, some claim he had not predicted the magnitude of the backlash he was about to face. Following complaints about DOGE and himself more generally, Musk defended his contributions at the meeting.
Musk later voiced his primary issue was not downsizing the government or terminating employees but quickly onboarding newer and more competent individuals. In retrospect, Musk showed his annoyance when he couldn’t expedite the hiring of DOGE engineers, after they were subjected to similar MAGA veneration tests as other prospective employees, and when he couldn’t secure a position on the government payroll for a green card holder Turkish venture capitalist, due to U.S. employment laws restricting non-citizens.
It has become the most recent instance of Musk striving with government restrictions, which are usually monitored and enforced by Gor’s office. A Trump adviser noted, ‘Elon doesn’t really respect our system. It might need improvements, but it’s nonetheless our system.’ Calkins expressed, given a longer term, nearly 18 months, Musk could have been more successful. He agrees more cutbacks are required, but Musk was perhaps not sufficiently cautious. In other words, Musk’s ‘chainsaw’ approach was too drastic, ‘we needed the chisel instead.’
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