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As if he doesn’t already have enough on his plate as chief executive of X, Tesla and SpaceX, divisive tech billionaire Elon Musk could soon add a new title to his arsenal: head of the US Department of Government Efficiency.
Should he win on Tuesday (US time), Donald Trump has announced that he’ll ask Musk to audit the entire federal government via this so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (named after Musk’s favourite crypto memecoin).
Billionaire Elon Musk has emerged as a central figure in the US election.Credit: AP
For outsiders, the proposed gig might seem like something of a surprise move from someone who, for more than a decade, has been largely preoccupied with inhabiting Mars. But Musk has been building towards this moment for years.
Ridding himself of any illusions of political neutrality, Musk has fully embraced the MAGA movement. He regularly peddles false claims about voter fraud and immigration policies, started a super PAC that has given at least $US118.5 million to Trump’s campaign, and has pledged to splash $US1 million a day to voters in key battleground states in the election – which could turn out to be a federal violation under laws about paying voters.
At a recent rally, Trump said Musk would conduct a “complete financial and performance audit” and make “recommendations for drastic reforms”.
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Speaking to The Washington Post last week, a Trump insider described Musk’s philosophy as “delete, delete, delete” and said they believed Musk’s first priority if Trump wins would be cutting jobs.
If there wasn’t so much at stake, this might be entertaining. But Musk’s stewardship of his companies gives us some clues about what his role in a Trump administration might look like, and it’s not good news for the 2.2 million full-time federal government workers or the people who rely on these essential services.
Musk has shown indifference, and often outright disdain, to workers at his own companies. Within weeks of taking over Twitter, he laid off about 6000 employees – roughly 80 per cent of its workforce. The teams that were cut laid bare his priorities: slashing diversity and inclusion units, policy, trust, content moderation and safety teams which were responsible for managing and reducing hateful and misleading content on the platform, and significantly, almost the entire communications team. That means if you or I have an inquiry about the company, there is no one to contact. Not being able to put questions to the world’s richest individual is one thing, but if similar moves were made for public servants, who act on behalf of the administration of the day, that quickly becomes a recipe for disaster – particularly if the president is one who is known to ignore rules and loathe transparency.