Elon Musk and his government's efficiency is rampaging through the federal government. But he endorsed Barack Obama before he accidentally fired a nuclear safety worker on his dog team and declared Donald Trump that “a straight guy can love another man.”
In other words, Musk is a complex, mercury man. To better understand him, the seven Voxwriters will teach you what they have learned to help you understand the billionaires.
Men with extraordinary risk tolerance
According to biographer Ashley Vance, Musk won about $250 million, or $180 million after tax, selling PayPal to eBay. He then turned around and threw his money into a new venture: $100 million for SpaceX, $70 million for Tesla, $10 million for SolarCity. “Apart from creating a machine that covers actual money, Musk would have never been able to choose a faster way to destroy his property,” writes Vance. Of course, the Gambles worked, but it was easy to get him to bankrupt. His appetite for danger extends to his personal life. At one of his birthday parties, Musk hardened his knife-thrower Harlblade on him when he was blindfolded, facing off against 350-pound champion Sumo Wrestler.
– Dylan Matthews
In hindsight, the 2018 feud with the British cave explorer may have foreseen a darker political situation.
That year, 12 boys and their soccer coaches were trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Elon Musk has offered to support the Thai government's rescue efforts by contributing to the mini-submarine. However, authorities deemed the mask offer unrealistic and declined it.
The international team ultimately saved the boys. And in a subsequent interview, Vern Wolnsworth, a British cave explorer who supported the effort, said that the mask offer had “no chance of working at all.”
Musk replied that Unsworth is a “Pedo” and that he bets money that British divers are predators.
The incident revealed that Musk was very sensitive to the smallest of personalities and was willing to tell lies of honor and loss about those who humiliate him. If he is willing to declare a child rescuer pedophile because he lightly parsed your mini submarine, how can you deal with a Democratic president banning your company from the electric vehicle summit?
In any case, now that he has become a political crusade, Musk has expanded production of burnt Cen and unfounded accusations. He accused British politicians of betting “rape genocide” simply because they investigated the circle of sexual abuse in the region, not the environment of citizens' sexual abuse. He irrationally claimed that Democrats imported illegal immigrants in a conspiracy to steal US elections in 2024. And while he argues that the US government will force media outlet Reuters to engage millions of dollars in “large social deception,” the original Trump administration has signed a contract with data company Thomson Reuters to sign special services to combat cyberattacks using “social deception” tactics.
Musk has been a light-skinned liar for a long time. That was once a problem for British cave divers. Now it's a problem for the world.
– Eric Levitz
Don't underestimate your attachment to “awakened mind virus”
There was a lot of speculation about why Musk forced himself into politics to such degree – his wealth, going to Mars, etc. – but I think his obsession with beating over what he calls the “awakening mind virus” is really very important. Like many, he has recently become quite radicalised by the country's left-hand shift towards identity issues (he cited distrust in a doctor who prescribes gender-affirming care for his trans daughter who fell.
This is what he tried to do with the Twitter acquisition, and in a way he's trying to do with Doge by attacking progressive institutions such as nonprofits, universities, the media and “deep state.” And unlike many of Trump's first term advisors, Musk has both the boldness to ignore legal attention and the ability to understand how to actually make things happen. No one expected him to effectively seize levers of power within the government that would allow government mass labours to block mass layoffs and spending of civil servants, but he did that. He is a destructive ball against those who get in the way of Trump.
– Andrew Procop
Elon is blinded by bad things
It's worth noting to see how much this guy's worldview has been trapped in the echo chamber in the decade and a half I've covered Elon Musk and his company. Things got worse when he bought it. I'm talking about Twitter, and now I'm talking about X, but I wonder every day if Musk is looking for information beyond what is seen in his feed or what appears in his references.
This is a territory of deep brain corruption, and what is happening in X appears to have informed, to some extent, masks' plans to dismantle the federal workforce. On all accounts, Musk's actions are to realize the right-wing mob mentality he cultivates on social media platforms. This is a feedback loop that doesn't touch on what's going on in everyday American lives. People have said on Twitter what happens on Twitter is only important to others. Well, thanks to Musk and his mob, it is shaping the future of America.
– Adam Clark Estes
Champion of “masculine energy”
Musk and his allies have turned Day's criticism into a traditional defense of masculinity. There, attention and consideration exists once again as marks for weakness and losers. Under this framework, diversity prioritization is surrounded by the perpetrators of why we fail today.
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg was expressing a growing Republican sentiment when he said that corporate culture needed more “masculine energy” because it was “culturally castrated.” Recent survey data shows that 79% of Republican men and 67% of Republican women believe that “society is becoming too soft and feminine.” This is the largest spike since 2011. This new rhetoric is not about improving equal efforts. What began as a pushback to specific diversity initiatives has evolved into a broader, feminized ideology rather than bureaucratic that challenges musk-style risk-taking. As this attitude becomes more and more pervasive in businesses and governments, prudence is becoming the fastest route to layoffs.
–Rachel Cohen
Looking to benefit his own revenue
Doge takes a chainsaw on federal workers, but Musk uses his power to interfere in investigative and regulatory fights that affect his businesses, leading billions of dollars in favorable contracts for his business.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, his social media site X has pressured the ad giant universe to buy more ads on X and to warn federal interference in a $13 billion merger with rival Omnicom groups. Musk's Rocket Company SpaceX wants to land a lucrative grant from Mars Missions, but its subsidiary Starlink aims to take over Verizon's contract to overhaul the FAA's communications system.
Musk's Brain-Computer Interface Company Neuralink investigations are in the air after these FDA investigators are fired (some are being asked to return). New emission rules and tariffs could benefit Tesla more than its competitors. And while sales of car companies in Europe plummeted amid rising protests, the compiled Consumer Financial Protection Agency is no longer able to investigate hundreds of complaints against Tesla.
Similarly, the shooting at the National Labor Relations Commission prevented the agency from ruling an investigation into businesses in masks. Mask's list of conflicts of interest continues to grow.
– Avishay Artsy
The wagers are different now
The recurring theme of the story about Elon Musk: people tell him something is impossible or too dangerous, and do it anyway. Certainly it can be an embarrassing mistake, but he seems to have managed to pull it off. SpaceX's story in particular is full of adored deniers as Rocket really managed to get along with their expectations.
The problem is that in government, masks have moved out of a world where not losing the impossible means that a catastrophic number of people die. If Pepfar grants, malaria programs, and childhood vaccination cancellations around the world are not reversed, masks' latest gambling will appear on the global death charts as extra deaths of 1 million people each year.
– Kelsey Piper
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