How An Unelected Car CEO Bought His Way Into Government To Tear It Apart And Benefit Himself And His Billionaire Buddies

Elon Musk has been a controversial figure for years, but even folks who were put off by his constant lies, bigoted beliefs and creepy treatment of women have found themselves shocked by just how quickly he went from a bad person who ran a car company to a bad person who had bought his way into the government and is now tearing it apart from the inside to benefit himself and his billionaire buddies. No one voted for him, and even though we knew he supported right-wing candidates, no one had any idea that less than a month after Trump took office, we’d be debating whether the Tesla CEO had given an actual Nazi salute or if the salute he gave was just Nazi-adjacent. As new reporting from the New York Times reveals, though, Musk’s plan to take over the federal government actually began several years ago at a $50,000-per-head dinner.

Allegedly, Musk first floated the idea of what would become the advisory committee that he calls DOGE (or the Department of Government Efficiency) in September 2023 during a dinner at fellow billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya’s mansion to raise money for delusional presidential candidate and wannabe rapper Vivek Ramaswamy’s inevitable failure of a campaign. Musk reportedly wanted to keep his presence at the dinner quiet since he wasn’t quite ready to go full mask-off. There, he suggested being given access to all of the government’s computers so he could gut the government from within. After all, what better way to get rid of those pesky regulators who kept complaining about the safety of his products and their damage to the environment?

After spending hundreds of millions of dollars to gain Trump’s favor and get him elected, there wasn’t much stopping Musk from doing whatever he wanted. The dinosaurs in Democratic leadership were caught flatfooted, the courts didn’t show much interest in stopping him, and Republican lawmakers certainly weren’t going to risk their careers doing anything to stop him. Musk and his associates moved in quickly, taking over the Office of Personnel Management, which operates as the federal government’s human resources department, and began working to force workers out of their jobs, whether it be through pressure, intimidation or, ultimately, blatantly illegal firings. They also began tracing where money was being spent so they could more effectively kneecap the agencies and departments they didn’t like or see any use for.

Part of the reason Musk was able to move so quickly was because Trump insiders such as Stephen Miller and Russell Vought had reportedly already spent time with him, teaching him how the federal government operated and helping him look for weaknesses he could exploit to gain insider access. Musk then set his sights on the U.S. Digital Service, a small unit created in 2014 to help other agencies fix their tech problems after the Healthcare.gov website rollout faced early issues. The billionaire and his associates believed the USDS would be the key to taking over and began putting the pieces in place while Biden was still president. That meant they were able to hit the ground running the day Trump took office.

Musk didn’t just have help from a former Heritage Foundation stooge and, uh, I’m not sure I can get what I’d like to call Stephen Miller past our CMS, so just use your imagination. He also had plenty of class traitors already working in the government, eager to prove themselves to their new CEO-King. Amy Gleason, a former USDS staffer, returned as a senior adviser to help with the Trump transition only to hire several young, inexperienced Musk loyalists who would later become infamous. During that transition period, Musk flunkies wormed their way into as many agencies and departments as they could, gathering information on the computer systems, as well as contracts and personnel lists.

Musk’s far-right, pro-Trump pivot also reportedly flattered Trump to the point that he was happy to sit back and let him spearhead their plans to raid the coffers and remake the government to exclusively benefit the wealthy. As long as Musk made that happen, Trump reportedly didn’t care about the details of what Musk did or how he did it. After all, they were both tired of laws and regulations that got in the way of them from making as much money as possible. It also didn’t hurt that Musk’s cult of personality meant millions of credulous morons would buy into anything he did regardless of its legality or morality. Whether he’s violated civil service protections, attempted to unilaterally cancel contracts or shut down agencies doing vital work, they’ve done nothing but cheer him on, often even dropping any pretense of believing in the rule of law. If Musk does it, it must be correct. 

Any normal person with a semi-functioning brain can understand that regulations are written in blood. They’re in place because something bad happened, and we want to prevent it from happening again. Ignoring them is how wildfires start, workplace accidents happen and people die. Musk, however, reportedly got it in his head that the Biden administration was targeting Tesla and SpaceX by enforcing laws that were already on the books. He didn’t like people with authority investigating his companies, evaluating his safety claims, or fining him when his companies polluted the environment. Sure, regulators keep people safe, but if you’re a sociopath who doesn’t care about other people, what does that matter?

Musk reportedly came to see a Trump victory as the only way his companies could survive and likely much less expensive than simply following environmental laws. That doesn’t mean it was cheap to buy a Trump victory, though. According to the New York Times, Musk spent about $300 million to get his preferred outcome. Even several months before the election, though, Musk was already talking openly about his plans to do a lot more than simply donate to the Trump campaign. In August 2024, he told right-wing podcaster Lex Fridman, “I have discussed with Trump the idea of a government efficiency commission, and I would be willing to be part of that commission,” after Fridman said he wished Musk could spend a week in Washington, D.C. making the government smaller. Eleven days later, Musk brought up his idea for a new “government efficiency commission” on a live Twitter call with Trump.

Trump said he agreed it was a good idea, although if you look at his track record as president, it’s clear Trump has no interest in actually reducing the national debt. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have ballooned by about $8 trillion during his first administration. Still, he continued to support Musk’s so-called “DOGE” idea leading up to the election.

Elon Musk may have been laying the groundwork for his new role, but other than tweeting incessantly, he allegedly didn’t really get going until it was clear Trump had won. He then holed up in Mar-a-lago and brought in several other ultra-wealthy individuals, including Ramaswamy, to figure out what they could actually do. They reportedly weren’t worried about what was legal and instead focused on who would support them and what they could get away with, with fellow billionaire Brad Smith supposedly alienating himself when his ideas required lawyers and carefully written executive orders. 

Musk wasn’t quite ready to completely remove any veil of legitimacy, but he also reportedly had no patience for incremental change. That’s how they landed on taking over the USDS, but without Musk in the role of official administrator. Instead, Musk would officially just be an advisor to the president. Among other reasons, they reportedly made that decision to keep Musk’s actions secret and avoid accountability:

For all his talk about “transparency,” Mr. Musk was obsessed with confidentiality and fearful of leaks. If people filed lawsuits seeking disclosure of his emails or the operation’s records under the Freedom of Information Act, the arrangement would set the administration up to argue that such documents were exempt. In contrast with agencies like the Office of Management and Budget, FOIA does not apply to a president’s White House advisers or to White House entities that advise him but wield no formal power, like the National Security Council.

That’s also apparently where Musk’s disagreements with Ramaswamy began. Vivek initially supported taking extreme action but wanted to focus more on eliminating regulations that he didn’t like. Musk, on the other hand, is said to have “had scant interest in constitutional law” and assumed the Supreme Court would let him get away with whatever he wanted.

By the time Trump was inaugurated, Musk had already assembled a team of loyalists ready to do his bidding. Executive orders had been drafted. Steve Davis, a vicious cost-cutter who had been part of the plan to take over the USDS was tapped to begin dismantling the government from within, and even before Inauguration Day, they had already sent staffers to various government tech hubs across the country. Others demanded massive amounts of information from various agencies with questions that “covered everything from personnel to pending executive orders to in-depth budget data to how much access officials had to government payment systems.” They even showed up at the Treasury, insisting that they be shown the source code for the payment system that it used to fulfill spending obligations incurred by federal agencies. 

Trump, in turn, did his part, almost immediately signing an executive order that would unleash Musk on the federal government while officially hiring him as a “special government employee.” In doing so, Musk was allowed to avoid having his financial disclosure form made public. Career civil servants were also reportedly shocked by how quickly Musk’s loyalists moved, especially when it came to gutting USAID. The fact that the agency is vital to America’s soft power across the world, and cutting off funding would have disastrous immediate effects, as well as undermining the country’s influence long-term, apparently didn’t matter. Surely, Musk isn’t still holding a grudge against USAID for its role in ending South African apartheid, right? That would just be petty and childish.

We’re barely a month into the second Trump administration, and Musk has already done so much damage, it’s hard to know what the next several months will look like. No one in Democratic leadership seems to have the courage to do anything approaching standing up to Musk and his flunkies. In less than six weeks, the CEO of an electric company has become the defacto president, and unfortunately for us, there isn’t really an established playbook for what you do when a car dork takes over your country. That said, Musk’s power is also inextricably tied to his wealth, and that is tied up in Tesla stock. If there’s anything that can be done, it’s going to start by taking the protests to Tesla dealerships directly.

Just, please, for the love of God, don’t try to blow up any Teslas or Tesla dealerhips. Mock Cybertruck drivers and make it socially unacceptable to be seen driving a Tesla, sure, but hurting people isn’t the answer. We can keep our protests peaceful and also push back against an unelected billionaire buying his way into government and then tearing it apart for the benefit of himself and his other billionaire buddies. After all, there are only so many of them and many, many more of us.