Elon Musk’s emergence as the big-spending, rocket-launching, joy-jumping alter ego for former President Donald Trump has transformed the conversation about what might really happen to Washington if Trump takes the White House back.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has a sprawling industrial empire, billions of dollars of business with the federal government, a hardening set of anti-progressive cultural views and an unpredictable management style born of Silicon Valley’s top-down “ founder culture .”
If that were all, he’d still be inescapable in politics. But Musk could also be handed a huge lever to change Washington. Trump has promised to put Musk in charge of an ambiguously defined “Department of Governmental Efficiency.” That role would give Musk sweeping authority over eliminating “waste” in government, and Musk has already promised to use the job to take $2 trillion out of the federal budget.
Some wonks are even wondering if his influence could extend beyond mere bureaucracy, given the historical precedent for a Trump White House to be swayed by the last person to have the former president’s ear.