Musk’s Empire Tells Its Own DOGE Story
Investors in his companies believe he stands to gain financially from his proximity to Trump, raising questions about inherent conflicts of interest.
Few — especially taxpayers — would deny that reducing the cost and inefficiency of government while eliminating fraud is a worthy goal. And there’s a beguiling logic to the idea that Elon Musk is ideally suited to the task. To that end, the world’s richest man, deputized by the world’s most powerful man, is trying to reinvent a government that also regulates, subsidizes and does business with him. He has a personal fortune of about $350 billion and a track record of running groundbreaking, highly valued companies, from Tesla Inc. to SpaceX and Neuralink, to name but a few.
But with each passing day, the financial conflicts of interest that run through everything Musk is doing for President Donald Trump as the de facto head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency become more apparent.