When a CEO’s companies face multiple federal investigations, recall millions of products and lose billions in market value, we typically don’t herald them as paragons of efficiency. Yet somehow, Elon Musk has been anointed as the architect of federal government reform, a position that would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.
The numbers tell the story. Tesla’s recent recall of nearly two million vehicles; SpaceX’s string of launch failures; Twitter’s (now X) catastrophic 80% devaluation after Musk’s acquisition, decimating what was once the world’s most accessible public forum. These aren’t the credentials of an efficiency expert, but rather the resume of a chaos agent.
So why entrust government reform to someone who has demonstrated such spectacular failures in managing his own enterprises — enterprises that, ironically, have been propped up by billions in federal contracts and subsidies? SpaceX alone has received hundreds of billions in NASA, Space Development Agency and National Reconnaissance Office contracts, while Tesla has benefited from generous government incentives and tax credits. This supposed crusader against government inefficiency has built his fortune on taxpayer dollars, making his appointment as efficiency czar not just ill-advised but riddled with conflicts of interest. Add in a recent unsolicited $97.4B offer to buy OpenAI and it appears he’s not only trying to corner a market, but the state, as well.