Elon Musk's 130 Days in Government

Recently, Shadow President Elon Musk announced that he was stepping back from politics. As I wrote last month, Musk had reached the 130-day statutory limitation on his appointment as a Special Government Employee and, as such, had no choice but to end his official involvement. However, it is very likely that Musk will remain involved in government behind the scenes. His government service has been far too lucrative for him to step back completely. Recently, the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren published a 12-page report titled, "Special Interests over the Public Interest: Elon Musk’s 130 Days in the Trump Administration," that lists 130 bullet points detailing ways in which Musk benefited from his government service.

The report starts out with two examples that seem hardly noteworthy given the scale of the questionable actions involving Musk. The first is the use of the White House lawn by cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump as a Tesla showroom, and the second was an appearance by Commerce Secretary Lutnick on Fox News during which he urged viewers to "buy Tesla." As with many things involving Trump, it is fair to ask what the reaction would have been had former Presidents Joe Biden or Barack Obama done such a thing. Republicans spent almost the entirety of Biden's term in office investigating whether he had used his political influence to enrich family members, and here was Trump, standing in front of the White House with TV cameras rolling, helping Musk sell cars. Apparently, "Honest Don's Auto Emporium" located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is no big deal.

Officially, Musk was simply an advisor to the President with no decision-making power. Government lawyers repeatedly told courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, that Musk neither led the U.S. DOGE Service nor was he an employee of that service. While that may be true on paper, in reality, it is quite clear from actions by both Musk and Trump that Musk was the de facto head of DOGE. This lack of candor with multiple courts should be a scandal in itself. DOGE's purpose was to increase efficiency in government primarily by cutting costs. As a result, DOGE engaged in wholesale slashing of government contracts. However, one category of contracts was not only protected from cuts but was at times expanded. Those were contracts that provided funding to Musk's personal businesses. Warren's report lists 24 separate contracts or programs that benefitted Musk. Most of these were very blatant attempts to direct funding to a Musk-owned company. For instance, the program aimed at providing broadband Internet connectivity to rural communities was amended to allow Musk's Starlink to participate despite warnings that Starlink would provide inferior service at higher costs. Similarly, Starlink terminals were leased to the Federal Aviation Administration, despite Verizon already having a contract to provide service. In another FAA project, Starlink terminals are being used, but details regarding the secretive program are scarce because, among other things, employees were required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

SpaceX has received or is poised to receive significant new funding. The White House is calling for a 13% increase in defense spending, and "SpaceX is considered likely to be the top recipient" of new Department of Defense funding. In addition, SpaceX is a likely recipient of Golden Dome missile shield money. SpaceX has received $7 billion in Department of Defense contracts and DOGE has influenced much of the spending. This is a clear conflict of interest. Musk has also pressured the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to stop work on the International Space Station and turn its efforts towards missions to Mars, a Musk priority that will benefit SpaceX. Warren's report lists several other projects that either Musk or the White House have pushed to end so that resources can be devoted to Musk's Mars missions. NASA also awarded SpaceX a contract to launch a space telescope at a cost of $100 million. In one case, a policy change that benefited Musk was practically a caricature of corruption. The Social Security Administration (SSA) began using X as its only channel for public communications despite the fact that the agency mostly serves elderly people who often are not computer literate or have trouble using social media.

As the introduction of the report says, before Trump took office, Musk's companies faced "at least $2.37 billion in potential liability from pending agency enforcement actions." With Trump in power and Musk exerting influence throughout the government, many of the investigations or actions against Musk's companies have been halted. As the report says, "in more than 40 other federal agency matters [related to Musk], regulators have taken no public action on their investigations for several months or more." Musk's reported drug use and his meetings with top Russian government officials, including Vladimir Putin, would ordinarily put his security clearance at risk. However, the Air Force declined to even review these allegations. Musk has failed to report many of his communications with foreign officials despite DoD requirements to do so. Several investigations of Musk companies involving employment practices have been closed.

Musk has been particularly aggressive with regard to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency to whose existence Warren played a key role. Musk called for deleting the agency and attempted to fire over 90% of the staff. Musk has many current or potential business interests that are impacted by the CFPB, and hamstringing the agency has freed him from considerable oversight. For instance, the "CFPB had received over 300 consumer complaints about Tesla," but the agency is forbidden by its current director from doing any work on them. All told, the report lists more than 30 items involving government agencies taking actions that will benefit Musk's companies.

A number of policy and regulatory changes have been advantageous for Musk and his companies. The FAA made several changes to allow SpaceX to increase rocket launches. In response to multiple failed SpaceX test flights, the FAA responded by modifying the hazard zones in which SpaceX could rain debris. The Department of Transportation weakened reporting requirements for self-driving cars. With Tesla expected to launch its first self-driving cars within days, the public may be kept in the dark about any problems the cars encounter. Commerce Secretary Lutnick announced a tariff exception that reportedly only applied to Tesla cars. In addition, "The SEC allowed Tesla to block nearly all proposed shareholder proposals".

The report contains a section titled "Special access to sensitive meetings and data" which describes how Musk used his role in the government to gain access to sensitive information that could advantage his companies over competitors. For instance, "Musk’s AI chatbot Grok increasingly is being used to analyze federal data, and is being trained on government data, giving it an advantage over competitor chatbots." Often Musk's actions take a bit of effort to unravel. One issue of importance to AI companies is copyright. AI companies have argued that they should be able to train their models without concern for copyrights. Copyright holders, on the other hand, believe that they should be paid if their content is used by AI companies. The copyright office has an important role in this discussion. When it was reported that the copyright office was going to release a report saying that AI training would not be considered fair use, Trump fired both the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, and the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter. DOGE staffers were dispatched to replace them.

Not only have DOGE officials who frequently have close ties to Musk assumed considerable control over large parts of the government, Musk has often been directly responsible for other officials being appointed to important positions. For instance, a Musk supporter was selected to lead the FCC, which regulates Starlink. The Golden Dome missile program is being led by a former SpaceX associate.

While serving as a Special Government Employee, Musk continued to make a number of foreign deals. In many cases, Musk's influence within the U.S. government was used to secure these deals. The report lists a large number of countries that agreed to allow Starlink access due to the threat of tariffs. Musk accompanied Trump on Trump's trip to the Gulf and joined Trump in meeting several foreign officials. Musk secured a deal with Saudi Arabia during the trip and got directly involved in discussions with the UAE concerning an AI deal, threatening to derail the deal if Musk's AI company were not involved.

Musk's reach throughout the government is simply astounding. The suggestion that he will now simply disappear into the sunset is extremely naive. Musk has laid the foundation for his continued control and influence throughout the government. There is no reason for him to give that up. Many of the actions listed in Warren's report will have long-term impacts that will last for years. Musk has already received considerable benefit from his 130 days in government. We can expect that he will continue to benefit far into the future.