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Your guide on what Trump’s second term for Washington, Business and the World means
What started with a chainsaw ends with a groan. Washington’s imminent release of Elon Musk brings the strangest chapter of Donald Trump’s presidency to an end. According to his own measures, the so-called ministry of efficiency of the Musk government failed. Far from achieving its 2 tn touted with savings, DOGE can end Cost to the taxpayer. Musk has prejudice to Tesla, where he will come back soon. Was there a hidden method in his madness?
Two musk gains can be identified in the rubble. The first is the psychic value for him and Trump to hurt their enemies. The shot on an expensive divorce that is worth every penny applies. Musk’s net value has dropped by around $ 130 billion since Trump’s inauguration. However, he instilled fear at CIA bureaucracy at the Ministry of Education. The disadvantages of the Doge’s tears valley – a demoralized workforce and bad titles on non -existent economies – can be presented as a victory. Musk attacked the deep state. With the help of the courts, bureaucracy retaliated but is seriously injured.
Musk’s second advantage could take some time to register. Trump’s “Golden Dome”, which aims to reproduce Israel’s “Iron Dome” for all the United States, could be one of the greatest taxpayers since Ronald Reagan’s strategic defense initiative, better known as “Star Wars”. In terms of dollars, Trump’s dome can even compete with the NASA Apollo project, which cost today’s 280 billion dollars. Since the missile shield should count on swarms of satellites, SpaceX from Musk would be the largest beneficiary. The company has formed a Golden Dome consortium with Palantir and Andundil, which are led by its great friends of technology.
The lasting impact of Musk on Washington can therefore be to divert a large part of taxpayers’ money from his empire. As the gifts go, it would be very nice. The question of whether it would improve US national security is someone else’s problem. Ditto to know if the contracts of the golden dome are considered to be waste, fraud or abuse. When only one company can fulfill the greatest functions of the project, there is little perspective of an open tendering process.
However, Musk has damaged and shows no signs of stopping now. What motivated Tesla’s boycotts in Europe and partly in the United States is not Doge, but the unsanitary company that Musk keeps on its X platform. The advertising campaign of the usurpation of London which described Tesla as “swasticar” – “zero to 1939 in three seconds” – came in reaction to his extreme right boosterism, and not to his war against the Bureaucracy. Unless he can temper his identifier, Tesla’s brand will remain contaminated. Ask Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney General, to label Tesla’s showroom vandroom because terrorism indicates that Musk remains ignorant of his image problem. Not for the first time, psychology can be a better behavioral predictor of the Trump administration than ideology.
In his own way, Trump tries to pay a balm on the injured pride of Musk. Sitting in a corner of his cabinet meeting last week, Musk recognized the gratitude of the room for his sacrifice. In an interview at the end of sweetness for Fox with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, he seemed injured by the public misunderstanding. “Now you are here in Washington DC alongside President Trump to try to save our country mainly,” she said. “Did anyone say thank you?” Many had indeed thanked Musk, he said. But others had interpreted his Nazi greetings without charity as Nazi greetings: “They really try all angles to get me.”
With hindsight, it is clear that Musk’s position with Trump fell in early April when his money did not make an election for a conservative candidate of the Supreme Court in Wisconsin. Although Musk spent $ 22 million in the most expensive judicial race of all time, the other judge has won, which means that there is always a liberal majority in the highest court in this state. Wisconsin was a decisive test that Trump established and Musk failed. But his biggest test was whether Doge could discover large -scale corruption. The fact that the judiciary and the congress controlled by the Republican are inerteed about Musk’s “wall of recipes” is a sign that the American system can hold better than fearing.
Anyway, Musk has reached a fork on the road. Its AI platform, Grok, had This To say on his stay in Washington: “His Dogey experience has led to operational disorders, legal tangles and limited results, overshadowing modest gains … Less a triumph than a edifying story.” If there is one thing like a chainsaw that Boomerangs, Musk invented it.
edward.luce@ft.com
