Why is he disillusioned? He got most of what he sought: sweetheart insider deals and near-total immunity from federal regulation for his companies. I guess his disillusionment is that he fought Donald for ‘Lord of the Universe’ and lost.
andsoitis · 1d ago
Disillusionment stemming from:
- huge spending increase, which undermines (and is diametrically opposed to) the mantra of cost reduction
- moronic (Musk's words) tariffs on Europe
- probably other things
morkalork · 1d ago
Was anyone actually under the belief that any cuts were made in good faith and not ideologically targeted?
busyant · 9h ago
A few months ago, I was in the waiting room of a car dealership, waiting for my car to get serviced. An elderly woman struck up a conversation with the woman next to her and said words to the effect of ... "There's a millionaire who owns a car company--Trump hired him to fix the federal government and he's doing a great job. He found all sorts of problems and he's firing the bad people."
I zipped my mouth b/c I didn't want to get into that kind of conversation at the car dealership....
MountainMan1312 · 1d ago
All the people I work with, which is anecdotal as heck cause I have like 3 coworkers, but it's still not zero
shagmin · 18h ago
...yes? The way I've heard it from some people is Trump is a business man who got other this other business man to start running the government efficiency, like a business. I don't think these people even knew who Elon Musk was a couple years ago and wouldn't touch an electric car with a ten foot pole.
onnnon · 19h ago
Elon is only permitted to work for 130 days because he's an SGE. The last day is May 30, which is 130 days after Jan 20.
A "special Government employee" (or "SGE") is an officer or employee in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government who is appointed to perform important, but limited, services to the Government, with or without compensation, for a period not to exceed 130 days during any period of 365 consecutive days.
This administration, including Musk, isn't known for following any rules/laws/norms, so I doubt this is the reason for his exit.
bediger4000 · 1d ago
Elon will now assume the position of "designated fall guy and bag holder". Anything that goes wrong domestically in the next year or so gets blamed on Elon.
rjbwork · 1d ago
Oh yeah. Absolute hatchetman and scapegoat.
jmye · 1d ago
Couldn’t happen to a nicer… well, to a something-er guy.
hn_acker · 15h ago
Elon Musk will deflect blame to the designated fall gal, Amy Gleason.
KnuthIsGod · 1d ago
Moved fast...
...and was broken.
TheAlchemist · 1d ago
What a softball article. It's mind blowing to me (living outside US) how journalism in the US is soft with people in power.
This was supposed to be the biggest (+ all the other great adjectives one can think of) change in US government history, hence the unprecedented and mostly illegal powers that were given to DOGE.
6 months later the results are :
- first DOGE pillar (Vivek) quit the job before even starting
- second DOGE pillar (Musk) quit the job just now
- Musk installed a lot of his loyalist at very influential government jobs
- 20 years old or something, with very questionable past, were given close to root access to pretty much most of government data. Nobody knows what they were able to extract and give to Musk
- Countless people working for US agencies (like USAID) were fired without notice
- Courts are busy trying to restore order and block most of what was done, but in many cases it's too late
- estimated "savings" are maybe 1% of what it was supposed to be, and that's being generous
- and lastly, not a single person was convinced of fraud !
WOW.
WarOnPrivacy · 1d ago
> What a softball article. It's mind blowing to me (living outside US) how journalism in the US is soft with people in power.
Major US news orgs have a long and mostly unbroken history of deference to federal powers. If a head of a federal LEO, intelligence or related agency makes a significant announcement, the press will dutifully repeat the assertions without any analysis or attempt to vet the info.
During the 2010s we'd get claims like Cyber Pearl Harbor or FBI's Going Dark w/ 7k unlockable phones. Never with evidence. And it was never questioned.
Officials who had been eventually factchecked (once here, once there) by qualified, credible people were found (each time) have been untrue (Keith Alexander). With a zero percent credibility rating, they were still never doubted.
Local news orgs do the same for most Gov and corp entities. If Local Police say "..." it will be faithfully presented as if the statement is a verified fact - except no verification is done, usually ever.
Our current admin rattles off stuff that is impossible to believe. Finally the US press wonders if it's true. Huzzah for progress, I guess.
- huge spending increase, which undermines (and is diametrically opposed to) the mantra of cost reduction
- moronic (Musk's words) tariffs on Europe
- probably other things
I zipped my mouth b/c I didn't want to get into that kind of conversation at the car dealership....
A "special Government employee" (or "SGE") is an officer or employee in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government who is appointed to perform important, but limited, services to the Government, with or without compensation, for a period not to exceed 130 days during any period of 365 consecutive days.
https://www.doi.gov/ethics/special-government-employees
...and was broken.
This was supposed to be the biggest (+ all the other great adjectives one can think of) change in US government history, hence the unprecedented and mostly illegal powers that were given to DOGE.
6 months later the results are :
- first DOGE pillar (Vivek) quit the job before even starting
- second DOGE pillar (Musk) quit the job just now
- Musk installed a lot of his loyalist at very influential government jobs
- 20 years old or something, with very questionable past, were given close to root access to pretty much most of government data. Nobody knows what they were able to extract and give to Musk
- Countless people working for US agencies (like USAID) were fired without notice
- Courts are busy trying to restore order and block most of what was done, but in many cases it's too late
- estimated "savings" are maybe 1% of what it was supposed to be, and that's being generous
- and lastly, not a single person was convinced of fraud !
WOW.
Major US news orgs have a long and mostly unbroken history of deference to federal powers. If a head of a federal LEO, intelligence or related agency makes a significant announcement, the press will dutifully repeat the assertions without any analysis or attempt to vet the info.
During the 2010s we'd get claims like Cyber Pearl Harbor or FBI's Going Dark w/ 7k unlockable phones. Never with evidence. And it was never questioned.
Officials who had been eventually factchecked (once here, once there) by qualified, credible people were found (each time) have been untrue (Keith Alexander). With a zero percent credibility rating, they were still never doubted.
Local news orgs do the same for most Gov and corp entities. If Local Police say "..." it will be faithfully presented as if the statement is a verified fact - except no verification is done, usually ever.
Our current admin rattles off stuff that is impossible to believe. Finally the US press wonders if it's true. Huzzah for progress, I guess.