Elon Musk

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Dear audience: Boy was I right.

in August that the idea of a potential Elon Musk cabinet position was absurd because a ) Tesla shareholders, who own the majority of his assets, would revolt even if you ignored the legal and ethical considerations, and b ) you can’t work on government issues that affect your own personal finances.

I’m here to regret. Because things became significantly wilder than I may have anticipated.

To be clear: It’s not that I was wrong about the conflicts of interest Trump may be subject to — it is almost nothing in government that doesn’t change Musk’s businesses, which span electric vehicles, robotics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, social media, biotechnology, satellite comms and road infrastructure.

However, I hardly understood how viciously Musk had sling his teeth into Donald Trump’s bandwagon to circumvent legal precedent and become the federal government’s .

Essentially, the administration has classified Musk as a” special state employee”. And theoretically, that means he may become subject to federal conflict of interest rules. However, it’s not yet clear whether the Justice Department will be able to enforce those statutes, and it’s still unclear whether that may arise. Which is all to suggest, Tesla owners don’t lose any sleep over that one.

Some Tesla investors saw the idea of Trump and Musk in the White House as a “disaster circumstance” over the summer because they wanted Musk, whose juggling have huge irked shareholders, to concentrate on his winning horses, the electric car manufacturer built on the promise of a robotic paradise. Shareholders seem willing to allow Musk run wild on the hopes that he’ll slash requirements and ensure any new procedures benefit the bottom line following Trump’s decisive victory and elevation of” initial buddy” Musk.

” A official government place would have been the game-changer, because it would have changed his CEO part”, Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities, told me Tuesday. According to him, the current circumstances are different, and “any criticism or blowback is far outweighed by these enormous advantages of Musk’s part in a Trump White House, which will eventually expedite the intelligent roadmap in the United States.”

( Autonomous driving, that is just one of Musk’s projects that he has repeatedly on. )

Unfortunately, without any police of conflict of interest laws, Musk’s resurrection is essentially a cash grab.

Companies have been hampered by the turbulent Trump agenda that Musk is supporting. But no Musk’s businesses.

The potential 25 % tax on Mexican and Canadian pieces, which may increase American car costs, has been a source of concern for US manufacturers in particular. But Tesla didn’t have to sweat those limits almost as much as Ford, GM and Stellantis. That’s because while there’s no such thing as a totally “all-American” vehicles, as my colleague Chris Isidore information, Tesla makes one of the few cars that is more American-made than most: the Model 3. That means Tesla won’t have to bear the exact fate as its bigger competitors if taxes are imposed on Mexico and Canada in the future.

Trump’s withdrawal of EV tax credits, which Musk supported, may also upset Tesla, of course. However, it almost certainly will hurt Tesla’s local rivals more.

And then there’s SpaceX, Musk’s privately owned rocket company, which has become a vital supplier to America’s national place habitat. Over the past ten years, the company has been awarded at least$ 15 billion in federal contracts. And it seems unlikely that the DOGE brothers, who claim to be looking out for useless costs from the federal budget, will breach any of those agreements.

Bottom line: I’ve learned my lesson about predicting the future. However, we can see where all of this is heading by looking at Musk’s recent past.

Buying Online in 2022 was, by traditional measures, a financial crisis. He killed the product’s manufacturer, both literally and morally, by renaming it X, welcoming neo-Nazi records and eventually by an estimated 80 %. In the end,$ 44 billion ended up being a small sum for what Musk ultimately received: a political megaphone he could use to support the election of a president who would permit the aspiring tech oligarch to have control over the infrastructure of the federal government.

Musk now has a chance to expand and virtually unrestrained his business empire under the control of DOGE. President Trump on Monday sought to reassure folks that” Elon can’t do, and won’t do, anything without our approval”. But so far, at least, Musk hasn’t reached the end of his leash.

My August headline read,” Let’s throw cold water on the Musk working for Trump thing”. And in some sense, I stand by that. Musk is working in the White House, but, as ever, Musk is working for himself.

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