In Washington, DC, New York City and San Francisco
After a few days of speculation because of the precise role that the richest man in the world would play in Donald Trump’s White House – how much power he would hold, whether he was a government employee – he moved to the platform of the social media he owned to clarify.
“My preferred title is just” technical support, “Elon Musk wrote on Tuesday in X. It was a knowledge of underestimation.
As head of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge), Musk appeared as a dominant force in the dizzying beginning of Trump’s second administration.
In just two weeks, he made efforts to use access to the federal pay system, dismantled the entire agency and offered millions of civil servants to Ultimatum – stop or face.
But Musk is a braver attempt to convert the Federal Government with the same blunt force he used to control companies like Twitter put him on a collision with the Washington Establisman.
And while securing a place in Trump’s inner circle, the observers wondered if a showdown could occur between these two powerful figures.
Musk’s journey from a billionaire entrepreneur to Power Power players was not easy. According to his own accounting, Musk has been a reliable voice for Democrats for decades.
But dissatisfied with Biden’s attitude on the issues of the Law on Labor Law to Transgere Rights, Musk began to look at the other side of the aisle on the presidential election in 2024.
Initially, Musk invited Trump to “hang the hat and sail at sunset” and supported his rival, governor of Florida Ron Desantis, for a Republican nomination. But soon he became the biggest president’s incentive, contributing to Trump $ 288 million and other Republican candidates and became a key campaign advisor.
At the time of Trump’s inauguration, Musk was his right man, sitting just behind the president’s left shoulder on the daisy – an unmistakable symbol of his influence.
“You know that I always say that we have to be protective of our genius because we don’t have too much. But that’s good,” Trump said about the male after welcomed him on stage on a rally the day before.
Since then, Musk has been an almost constant presence in the capital of the state.
Almost immediately after his choice Trump touched the male to lead Dogea, and this new role seemingly empowering him in a far -reaching mission to shorten and transform the Federal Government, advocating for mass reforms at an amazing speed.
Although Trump said that Musk would not get an office in the West Wing, the technology leader and his team moved the beds to the federal office of the White House’s neighborhood, according to the New York Times.
He has a Top Secret Security Clearance, confirmed by Trump’s administration official, potentially enabled him to access a wide part of highly classified information.
His tactics – relentless, sometimes ruthless – recall how he led his previous companies, former employees say.
Former program manager in Tesla, who talked to the BBC about the state of anonymity to talk about sensitive things, said Musk “didn’t care” the human costs of his decisions.
“He is only dealing with the goal that is at hand. I think he looks at interpersonal problems and conflicts as auxiliary things that are not worth the time of his time,” he said.
Occasionally the musk tilted impulsive. The manager recalled that Musk had set fire to a colleague from Tesla’s employee on the spot because of the crowded garbage can.
“He interpreted it as a sign that that person did not proud as much as he should,” he said. “It was a shade of that … but at the end of the day someone was fired because he admitted that their garbage can flooded.”
The approach gave a dedicated workforce, the employee said. If you were on board with a Musk mission, that unanimous focus was motivating, he said, and helped to encourage regular 13-hour days at work.
“He can get more than people than anyone else I have ever seen,” he recalled, though he added that the intensity in Tesla was the same for the trail in the silicon valley.
But for those from the Federal Government, the employee added: “It must be a cultural shock.”
Nowhere Musk’s alleged work on behalf of Trump felt as intense as a USAID.
The government agency responsible for international development has exceeded the distribution of billions of help in programs around the world to an effective dead stop in just over two weeks.
Trump has already significantly reduced USAID’s work when he ordered a 90-day break in US foreign consumption, while the administration examined funds to make sure they were in accordance with the president’s goals of politics.
But in recent days, employees have watched with an increasing alarm that Musk sets its aspects directly on the USAID, marking their agency with a “criminal organization” on X.
Male sharper rhetoric coincided with equally drastic changes to USAIDs.
February 1, the USAID website stopped working; His x account seemed to disappear shortly after. On the same weekend, two main safety officers were appointed administrative leave after conflict with Doge representatives for an approach to a safe facility used to review classified information, Washington Post and other US outlets reported.
On Monday, the USAID employees were told to stay at home, while hundreds of employees were closed from their e -host. CBS, BBC’s US news reports that USAID employees are leaving their countries around the world by Friday.
“It’s out of repair,” Musk told the agency during a 50-minute interview at X Spaces early on Monday morning.
“I crossed it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should close him,” Musk said of his conversation with Trump. “And I actually checked with him several times [and] He said “Are you sure?”
“Elona masculine comments were particularly cut, calling us a” criminal organization “that should” die, “said USAID employee, who asked not to be named because they were afraid of retaliation from men and administration.
“Coming from the richest man on the planet, who feels quite grotesque,” said the staff, who has since been put on administrative leave with many other colleagues.
“I see the officials of external services who spent all their lives serving – a large part of it abroad – and the victims they gave,” they said. “To withdraw through the mud like this is disrespect.”
He expressed the concern of Democrats and experts on whether Trump and Men’s actions were legal.
On his face, the efforts of Trump and the male to turn off the USAID “are not legal because it refers to what Congress has previously explicitly done,” said Jon Rogowski, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, who studies the separation of powers into the US government.
Congress established a USAID as an independent agency, and the legislative branch adheres to funding.
However, as head of federal agencies, Trump has a broad authority to bring certain USAIDs under the control of a state department, according to George Ingram, a senior colleague from B
One of these moves included the appointment of State Secretary Marc Rubioa as the head of the head of the USAID, when the agency functioned regardless of the state department in the past, following his guidelines on foreign policy.
In the Congress, influential Republicans look willing to work with administration to enable a certain degree of change.
“I support the efforts of Trump’s administration on reform and the agency’s restructuring in a way that better serve American interests in national security,” said senator James Risch, chairman of the Senate Out -of -Senate Relations Committee.
Although Musk has no authority to turn off or restructuring USAIDs, the Agency probably could not be disassembled as quickly and thoroughly without its influence.
“I cannot remember any precedent where the presidential administration basically handed over the reins to a private citizen, processing and taking control of the executive branch as they consider appropriate,” said Mr. Rogowski.
In a statement to the BBC, the print secretary of the Karolina Leavitt White House said that Musk “selflessly serves the administration of President Trump as a special government employee, and complying with all applicable state laws.”
Prior to Trump’s inauguration, some of the men’s peers expressed optimism in the appearance of injections of a start-up culture in Washington.
“I think we just had a very exciting moment,” said Marc Benioff, the founder of the billionaire and the Salesforce CEO, who was loud in his support of Trump in December. “It’s a new chapter for America.”
“There are a lot of incredible people like Elon Musk in the Technology Industry and in the business community. And if you can use the power of expertise to best use America, it is a great vision,” he said at the time.
But for two weeks in Trump’s administration, some observers say not everyone in the Silicon Valley is delighted.
Niki Christoff, former Salesforce CEO now runs a communication company at DC, told the BBC that many “people in [tech] The industry seems to have appeared in the last two weeks. “
“Most executive directors of multinational technological companies publicly trade their want predictability. They want stability. They want a strong dollar,” she added. “They want predictable supply chains, and many politics and titles coming from Washington create anxiety and uncertainty.”
Dr. Philip Low, a neuroscientist and director of the Neurovigil Neurovigil Neurotechnology Company, said the Musk -Book could devote to government institutions. The two were nearly 15 years before their relationship ran, he said.
“His pattern is to take companies, invest in them, destabilize them, then take them over,” said Dr. Low, citing Twitter as an example.
“In this context, the White House is his largest investment to this day. And now it destabilizes the US government.”
According to Dr. Low, Musk will not be pleased that he is a reliable deputy, which he can place him in a collision with the president, his boss.
“Knowing Elon as I am, he doesn’t want to be number two or number three. He’ll want to take over,” he said.
“Whatever decides, he goes,” said former Tesla employee, echoing Dr. Low. “Never takes the answer.”
After an earthquake at USAID, Trump made it clear that the final authority would always rest with him.
Asked if he was pleased with the male after the advancement of the agency, he said that “mostly”.
“Sometimes we won’t agree with that and we won’t go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job,” he said on Monday.
“The Elon cannot do and will do nothing without our approval, and we will give him approval where it is appropriate. If this is not appropriate, we will not,” said the president.
“Logs to.”
