Musk Is Leaving Because He Got What He Wanted
Musk has stolen data from the American people and will take that, and who knows what else, back to the private sector.
It is natural to respond to Elon Musk’s announcement that he is distancing himself from the a Trump administration, and from Washington, with relief and even some happiness. After all, Musk’s combination of murderous policies, contempt for essentially anybody but himself, level of arrogance that makes even Trump look self-effacing, ignorance about government, smarmy disposition, ceaseless and pathetic attempts to be funny, and role as the banker for the MAGA fascist movement, make him a pretty easy person to dislike. However, his alleged departure from the administration raises some important questions.
First, the legacy of DOGE will far outlive Musk’s brief tenure in the center of the Trump White House. Musk, despite having no government position and acting mostly in the capacity of friend and funder of the President, through DOGE, a fake government department, laid off thousands of workers and damaged countless government agencies. In addition to the lives that have been disrupted through these layoffs, government services from veteran’s services to preparing for natural disasters have been impacted.
Most strikingly, Musk’s role in closing USAID will lead to hundreds of thousands, more likely millions, of deaths in the global south from disease and starvation that otherwise would have been prevented. The longer-term impact of closing USAID is unknowable, but it will likely contribute to a less stable and democratic world and a spike in anti-American sentiment. If the US finds itself in a more hostile and unwelcoming world five, ten or twenty years from now, the closure of USAID will be one of the reasons. This is a bit of a foreign policy butterfly effect, if the butterfly in question were a comically wealthy, pompous fascist.
Musk may be leaving the administration-for now-but we do not know what he is taking with him. In the early days of Trump’s presidency, Musk, through his DOGE minions, got access to an enormous amount of personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans. We do not know for certain what data Musk has or what he intends to do with it. He might be using that data to send all of us flowers or chocolates on our birthdays, but it is possible he has more nefarious usages in mind.
It is likely that Musk has financial data through the IRS and the Social Security administration, possibly health related data on millions of Americans through Medicaid and Medicare and other similar information. This data could be used to profile people or harass political opponents. Musk could sell the information to other companies or even foreign countries. The possibilities are endless, and most are not good.
It is very likely that Musk is taking away a lot of very valuable data that he obtained unlawfully, but that is not all. Musk will probably get extremely lucrative government contracts in the coming years, the groundwork for which was laid during his time around Washington and Trump.
Musk and the other techno-goniffs around the administration have wanted to get their hands onto billions of dollars of government contracts in areas related to defense, AI and others. Musk’s time in government has made that easier for all of them-and it is unlikely any of them will make more money off these contracts than Musk himself will. At the very least, Musk’s time in the administration, so to speak, gave him access to information that will give his companies an advantage over their competitors.
During the May 30th press conference at the White House announcing Musk’s departure Trump remarked “This will be his last day, but not really, because he will always, be with us, helping all the way.” Trump’s comments are largely accurate. Because of the data, and who knows what else, Musk took with him from his time in, or around, government he will be able to continue to harm to the American people, but now from outside government.
Because Musk entire time in the administration occurred outside of normal government channels and structures, there has never been any accountability or transparency around him. He never held any official title, regardless of what he called himself, never had to appear before the Senate, disclose financial conflicts of interest or report in any substantive way on what he was doing. Therefore, it may take a long time before we find out what Musk really did while he was in the administration and, more importantly, what he took with him when he left.
The media, in addition to reporting on Musk’s drug use, poor health, moodiness and erratic behavior, which while of prurient interest to some can hardly be described as news as most of us either already knew this or assumed it based on Musk’s public persona, has suggested Musk is leaving because he is unsatisfied with the regime. A better way to think about this is that Musk has left the administration, because he got what he wanted and wants to use what he has stolen from the American people to fuel his avarice and his tech-fascist fantasies.