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Indian Express
6 hours ago
- Business
- Indian Express
The 130-day politician: Good bye, Elon Musk, Disaster Girl
Is it at all possible that Elon Musk pumped nearly $300 million into Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign just so he could be immortalised as… a meme? Consider the evidence: The government department he persuaded his presidential pal to sign into existence on the very day of the latter's inauguration, and which he, Musk, wielded like a chainsaw in a forest, is called the Department of Government Efficiency — shortened to DOGE which, as anyone who has been alive for the last 15 years knows, is the name of one of the most meme-ified dogs of all time (a Shiba Inu named Kabosu, who died almost exactly a year ago. RIP). And speaking of chainsaws, what about the made-for-meme moment at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February this year, when Musk strode about on stage, wielding an actual chainsaw (a gift from another presidential bestie, Javier Milei of Argentina), screaming 'chainsaw for bureaucracy'? Or, when he declared, on that same stage, 'I am become meme'? Looking back, moments like these seem to be all that Musk has to show for his 130 days in government. For one, the billionaire had to walk back his claim that DOGE would save the government $2 trillion by cutting bloat; this was later brought down to $1 trillion, with the final figure, at the time of Musk's departure, being a significantly more modest $175 billion, as per the department's 'wall of receipts' (although most expert estimates peg the figure even lower). If anything, the administration is likely to face several (costly) legal challenges to the mass layoffs DOGE carried out in its cost-cutting efforts, and its many instances of overreach. Musk swaggered into national politics with the confidence of one who knows how to Get Things Done, boasting about how easy it was to cut government spending. The realities of governance and bureaucracy soon saw him change his tune: By the time of his departure, Musk was giving interviews about the 'uphill' nature of his job and having to deal with a lot of complaints: 'It's really difficult…it's sort of, how much pain is, you know, are the cabinet and is Congress willing to take.' At the same time, his personal reputation had begun to suffer, with the biggest hit being taken by his EV company, Tesla. Sales dropped by about 20 per cent, and profits plunged by more than 70 per cent during Musk's time in DOGE. Protests and boycotts by those unhappy over the billionaire's involvement in slashing government spending and mass layoffs also saw Tesla shares plummet in value, with unhappy shareholders pressuring Musk to step back. Trump's punitive tariffs against China — Tesla's biggest market — only made matters worse. Despite all this — the reputational damage, the hit to his net worth (estimated to have dropped by about 25 per cent), and the many, many clashes with key members of the administration over his brash working style (including through open criticism of Trump's tariffs and his 'Big, Beautiful Bill') — it is all but certain that Musk will bounce back. He still wields a hugely influential megaphone in the form of X, remains the world's richest man and appears to have retained, at least going by the farewell event at the Oval Office, the friendship of the world's most powerful man. In any case, there's something about being a billionaire (most likely all those billions) that makes a person resistant to the slings and arrows of fortune — unlike, say, the federal worker who is struggling to find a job because she, long with thousands of her colleague, was laid off in the DOGE cuts. Or, the millions of HIV-positive people in other parts of the world who risk full-blown AIDS due to lack of availability of antiretrovirals, because Musk and his DOGE staffers spent a weekend in February 'feeding' USAID — which, among many other things, was doing vital work to end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic — 'to the woodchipper'. Musk exits Washington, possibly humbled (but not likely), but with much of his power and influence intact. His companies are reported to have scored both domestic and international business deals during his time in the Trump administration, including deals to bring Starlink, his satellite internet company, to new markets like India, and multibillion dollar government contracts for SpaceX. That there have been allegations of corruption and conflict of interest — with several Democrats demanding an investigation — is unlikely to slow down either Musk or his companies. In the end, the meme that might most come to be identified with Musk's dalliance with government may not be from that chainsaw moment on the CPAC stage or when he wore a 'tech support' t-shirt to his first cabinet meeting. It would be the meme featuring a photo of a young girl smiling into a camera while a house burns behind her: Disaster Girl.
New York Post
15 hours ago
- Business
- New York Post
Elon Musk says ‘my time had to end' as he leaves Trump admin — but he's not going far
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk left the White House for the last time as a special government employee Friday, telling reporters 'my time had to end' — but insisting the Department of Government Efficiency he inspired will live on. 'I'll continue to be visiting here, and be a friend and an adviser to the president,' Musk, 53, said alongside President Trump in the Oval Office, sporting a black eye that he claimed was the product of a well-placed punch from his five-year-old son, X. The South Africa-born entrepreneur also vowed 'to support the DOGE team [as] we are relentlessly pursuing a trillion dollars in waste and fraud reduction that will benefit the American taxpayer.' The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had appeared increasingly jaded as he approached the end of his 130-day tenure, telling CBS News in an interview this week he was 'disappointed' with Trump's signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act — his first public break with the president. 5 Trump shakes Musk's hand at the White House on his final day. But Musk was in a more bullish mood Friday, reaffirming that 'I'm confident that over time, we'll see a trillion dollars of savings — a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reductions.' 'The DOGE influence will only grow stronger,' he predicted. 'I liken it to a sort of Buddhism, it's like a way of life. It is permeating throughout the government.' The department's own website currently claims that DOGE has trimmed just $175 billion in government fat — and even that total has been questioned. 5 Musk said he will still be an 'adviser' to the president, and that the trillion dollar goal still remains. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has pledged to move ahead with making the DOGE cuts permanent when lawmakers begin the regular appropriations process in September for fiscal year 2026 — while press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed Thursday that Trump and his cabinet members will oversee the department's ongoing work. 'Almost all of those people are staying,' Trump said of Musk's DOGE team, which is largely made up of young engineers. 'It will be really interesting to see what the final number is going to be,' the president added, predicting that the savings could add up to 'hundreds of billions' while promising to make cuts 'very surgically.' 5 Elon Musk jumps on stage as he arrives to speak at a town hall in support of Donald Trump at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on October 18, 2024. AFP via Getty Images 5 Musk leaves the stage holding a chainsaw after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Getty Images Musk endorsed Trump after the Republican narrowly survived an assassination attempt during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pa., and quickly became one of the president's closest confidants — listening in on calls with foreign leaders, spending time with the first family, and sitting in on critical meetings. The billionaire was entrusted to gut the government of 'fraud and waste' by eliminating unwanted programs, causing controversy due to his status as an unelected official who was not subject to Senate confirmation. Protests broke out across the country over Musk pulling the plug on organizations like the US Agency for International Development — whose key functions were transferred to the State Department — and masterminding layoffs of thousands of workers at agencies including the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services. 5 Elon Musk holds a 'key to the White House' given to him by President Donald Trump. AFP via Getty Images The president stood behind Musk throughout his government tenure, publicly buying a Tesla on the White House driveway in March and threatening left-wingers who vandalized the electric vehicles with up to 20 years in prison. 'He's one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,' Trump said Friday of his right-hand man. 'Elon has worked tirelessly to lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations.' Musk has reaffirmed his commitment to Tesla, recently telling investors in Qatar he expects to remain as CEO for at least the next five years.
Buzz Feed
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Buzz Feed
NYT: Musk's Drug Use While Advising Trump Revealed
He forcibly and potentially illegally gained access to wildly sensitive government data that he hired a bunch of unvetted 20-somethings to oversee ― and he was potentially blitzed out of his mind at the same time. Just days after tech billionaire Elon Musk officially left his role as a top adviser to President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported that the tech mogul was consuming large quantities of drugs around the same time he became a fixture on the campaign trail. Citing private messages obtained by the Times and interviews with Musk's associates, the outlet reported that Musk took ketamine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, Ambien, Adderall, and other drugs, and traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla reportedly took so much Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic known to induce schizophrenia-like symptoms, that it affected his bladder function. The report is bolstered by a January 2024 Wall Street Journal investigation in which sources close to Musk said they'd witnessed or had direct knowledge of him using LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms, and ketamine. Musk's attorney Alex Spiro told the Journal at the time that his client is 'regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX' and has 'never failed a test.' It's unclear how, or whether, Musk's consumption habits changed once he became a federal bureaucrat with an office in the White House complex. He didn't address the claims directly at a Friday afternoon press conference in the Oval Office, instead attacking the credibility of the New York Times itself. But he's continued drawing attention for unusual antics, including a chainsaw-wielding appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference and a Nazi-like hand gesture at Trump's inaugural rally. In April, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) introduced a bill that would require Musk and his hires at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to undergo regular drug testing, though the bill has gone nowhere in the Republican-majority House. ' Donald Trump has given billionaire Elon Musk the keys to our government, and with it, access to highly sensitive information — from Treasury and Social Security data to even our most guarded military plans,' Sherrill wrote in a press release. 'Those with access to sensitive information must be thoroughly vetted, clear-eyed, and exercise good judgment.' Asked Friday if he was concerned about drug use by Musk, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was dismissive ― but notably didn't rule it out. 'The drugs that we're concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border,' he told reporters. The eccentric billionaire has openly discussed his ketamine use in the past. In a 2024 interview with Don Lemon, he said he took 'a small amount' every other week ― but got miffed when Lemon pushed him on it. 'If you've used too much ketamine, you can't really get work done, and I have a lot of work,' he told the journalist at the time. An Atlantic article describing the drug's effects on the body found people build tolerance to it very quickly, requiring ever larger doses to achieve the same high and leading to long-term impaired cognition, including 'delusional thinking, superstitious beliefs, and a sense of specialness and importance.' Those would seem to strike a chord with Sam Harris, a public intellectual and former friend of Musk, who publicly broke with the world's richest man in a post earlier this year. 'Any dispassionate observer of Elon's behavior on Twitter/X can see that there is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality,' he wrote.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
5 Things Elon Musk Can Tell His Manager He Accomplished As A Federal Employee
Elon Musk — world's richest man, major government contractor, top donor and adviser to the president of the United States and guy who pays to cheat at video games — ended his tenure as a special government employee on Friday with a cheerful goodbye and thank-you from President Donald Trump. Asked by a reporter Friday if his time in government was worth it and what he would have done differently, Musk, sporting a bruise over his right eye, complained his 'Department of Government Efficiency' had become a 'bogeyman' and seemed to concede defeat to the federal bureaucracy. 'There are many things that occur in the government because it's, it's the banal evil of bureaucracy. It's sort of the frankly, largely, largely uncaring nature of bureaucracy,' he said. So was it worth it? 'I think it was an important thing,' Musk said. 'I think it was a necessary thing and I think it will have a good effect in future.' One of Musk's key early initiatives was a requirement for all federal government employees to send emails to their bosses outlining five things they accomplished the week prior. Musk originally threatened to fire any employee who didn't send such an email, but later backed down. Workers at the Social Security Administration are still sending the emails as of this week, while the Department of Defense asked employees for their final submissions this week as well. In honor of Musk's departure, HuffPost has compiled a list of five things Musk could point to as accomplishments in a sign-off email to Trump. In a February appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the president of Argentina, who is a darling of right-wingers, handed Elon Musk a power tool and, in so doing, created the indelible image of the Musk era of Trump's second term. 'This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,' Musk said as he waved the chainsaw around, posing for the photographs that would be used for hundreds of news stories about his efforts to cut federal agencies. The chainsaw at once symbolized Musk's power and his recklessness. Musk and his team had already pushed federal agencies to fire thousands of employees and halt grants, causing courts to jump in and order the money unfrozen, but not before nonprofits that oversee things like Meals on Wheels and heating assistance warned their services were imperiled. Courts ordered federal agencies to rehire workers, only for the Supreme Court to put the rehiring on hold while the case moves through lower courts. On Friday, a reporter asked Musk about the bruise on his face. He said his 5-year-old son did it. 'I said, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face,' and he did,' Musk said. Musk's signature achievement as head of DOGE was the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the part of government most contrary to Trump's notions of 'America First.' Musk bragged he put the agency 'into the wood chipper.' (This was before he'd been given the chainsaw.) The decapitation of the agency resulted in the cutoff of lifesaving aid to people, including children, in poorer countries around the world. A Boston University professor estimates more than 300,000 people, two-thirds of them children, have already died in the four months since the cuts were implemented. Musk took big swings against federal agencies and picked some questionable targets, including the Social Security Administration, purveyor of monthly benefits to more than 70 million Americans. He falsely claimed Social Security was full of fraud and championed cuts to services Democrats used to portray Musk as the biggest villain of Trump's government. 'What we found was happening was that if there were any cuts anywhere, people would assume that was done by DOGE,' Musk said Friday. 'And so we became, essentially, the DOGE bogeyman, where any cut, anywhere, would be ascribed to DOGE.' Musk's approval rating tanked, sinking lower than the president's, and so did the stock performance of his electric car company, Tesla. He mused last week that he might have spent too much of his time on politics. On Friday, Trump vouched for his top campaign funder and efficiency czar. 'He's done a lot of things,' Trump said. 'Frankly, I don't think he gets credit for what he's done. He's a very good person. He happens to be a really good person who loves the country.' Musk claimed during the campaign that he could easily save the federal government $2 trillion out of its nearly $7 trillion annual budget simply by rooting out fraud and waste. After Trump won, Musk scaled his ambition down to $1 trillion in savings. On Friday, Musk conceded that DOGE had come up with only $160 billion in savings, though the estimates posted on the DOGE website have frequently proven unreliable. 'I'm confident that, over time, we'll see a trillion dollars of savings,' Musk said Friday. Much of what generated public opposition to DOGE was the agency's seemingly relentless quest for more data. For privacy reasons, government data is often siloed off, with access restricted only to key decision makers at different agencies. DOGE pushed aside agency heads and cybersecurity professionals to get previously protected data from the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration. Why? According to published reports, it was to build a master database to speed up immigration enforcement and make it easier for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find local undocumented immigrants and deport them. The database would be key to achieving Trump and top White House adviser Stephen Miller's goals of 'mass deportation' at a time when ICE is reportedly not meeting its deportation goals. Elon Musk Explains Why He Has A Black Eye Tim Walz's 6-Word Response To Elon Musk's Government Exit Is Hilariously Accurate Elon Musk Is Leaving The Trump Administration After Criticizing 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's Drug Use Much Greater Than Previously Known: New York Times
He forcibly and potentially illegally gained access to wildly sensitive government data that he hired a bunch of unvetted 20-somethings to oversee ― and hewas potentially blitzed out of his mind at the same time. Just days after tech billionaire Elon Musk officially left his role as a top adviser to President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported that the tech mogul was consuming large quantities of drugsaround the same time he became a fixture on the campaign trail. Citing private messages obtained by the Times and interviews with Musk's associates, the outlet reported that Musk took ketamine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, Ambien, Adderall, and other drugs, and traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla reportedly took so much Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic known to induce schizophrenia-like symptoms, that it affected his bladder function. The report is bolstered by a January 2024 Wall Street Journal investigation in which sources close to Musk said they'd witnessed or had direct knowledge of him using LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine. Musk's attorney Alex Spiro told the Journal at the time that his client is 'regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX' and has 'never failed a test.' It's unclear how, or whether, Musk's consumption habits changed once he became a federal bureaucrat with an office in the White House complex. He didn't address the claims directly at a Friday afternoon press conference in the Oval Office, instead attacking the credibility of The New York Times itself. But he's continued drawing attention for unusual antics, including a chainsaw-wielding appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference and a Nazi-like hand gesture at Trump's inaugural rally. In April, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) introduced a bill that would require Musk and his hires at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to undergo regular drug testing, though the bill has gone nowhere in the Republican-majority house. 'Donald Trump has given billionaire Elon Musk the keys to our government, and with it, access to highly sensitive information — from Treasury and Social Security data to even our most guarded military plans,' Sherrill wrote in a press release. 'Those with access to sensitive information must be thoroughly vetted, clear-eyed, and exercise good judgment.' Asked Friday if he was concerned about drug use by Musk, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was dismissive ― but notably didn't rule it out. 'The drugs that we're concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border,' he told reporters. The eccentric billionaire has openly discussed his ketamine use in the past. In a 2024 interview with Don Lemon, he said he took 'a small amount' every other week ― but got miffed when Lemon pushed him on it. 'If you've used too much ketamine, you can't really get work done, and I have a lot of work,' he told the journalist at the time. An Atlantic article describing the drug's effects on the body found people build tolerance to it very quickly, requiring ever larger doses to achieve the same high and leading to long-term impaired cognition, including 'delusional thinking, superstitious beliefs, and a sense of specialness and importance.' Those would seem to strike a chord with Sam Harris, a public intellectual and former friend of Musk, who publicly broke with the world's richest man in a post earlier this year. 'Any dispassionate observer of Elon's behavior on Twitter/X can see that there is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality,' he wrote. Democrat Targets Elon Musk, DOGE With Drug Testing Bill Tim Walz's 6-Word Response To Elon Musk's Government Exit Is Hilariously Accurate Social Media Brutally Mocks Elon Musk's Goodbye Note To DOGE Trump 'Clearly' Wants To Avoid 1 Thing With Elon Musk, Says Maggie Haberman
