Clipping Elon's Wings

Plus White Lotus, 2 great political stories, and a bagel review

Elon Musk and Argentinean President Javier Milei - Wikimedia Commons

It was only a matter of time. Elon Musk’s chainsaw approach to cutting the federal government was always likely to ruffle feathers within Trump’s administration. It’s not surprising that tempers flared last week in a cabinet meeting, and Trump was forced to clip Elon’s wings, instructing him to use a scalpel, not a hatchet.

There’s a more fundamental truth at play here — moving fast and breaking things may work at a tech company where workers can quickly make product updates with new code. This strategy, however, doesn’t work so well with the U.S. federal government, where human lives are directly at stake.

It’s not surprising that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was frustrated that Elon’s young staff of technologists were trying to lay off air traffic controllers. This comes shortly after multiple airplanes have crashed during the first few weeks of the Trump presidency.

And it’s also not surprising that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was incensed with Elon’s team's dismantling of USAID without fully considering the numerous programs it funds globally, like Ebola prevention. I know we’re all about “America First” these days, but last I checked, Ebola doesn’t care about borders, and an outbreak anywhere threatens global health and stability everywhere (this same argument can be made for many programs funded by USAID).

Elon Musk doesn’t care. While I was cautiously optimistic when DOGE was announced, given our insane debt and debt servicing costs in America, DOGE has played out far worse than I could have imagined. For Elon, it’s simply a game where he’s the chessmaster trying to consolidate power, with most of us serving as his easily discardable pawns.

Historian

Heather Cox Richardson

highlighted how Elon Musk refers to his political opponents as “NPCs.” This is a video game term referring to a “nonplayer character”; a character who doesn’t think on its own and follows a scripted path in a game. The purpose of a NPC is to populate the game for the actual, real players.

Elon may view himself as a master of the universe. Being the richest man in the world who’s built multiple companies worth billions will do that to someone. But taking a chainsaw to Twitter, Tesla, or SpaceX is very different than trying to do the same with the U.S. federal government.

If Elon was really serious about eradicating waste, fraud, and abuse from government, he wouldn’t be sending in 20-year-old coders with no government experience to fire air traffic controllers, gain access to sensitive Treasury payment programs, or dismantle USAID and the helpful soft power that comes with it. Instead, he would be working with forensic accountants, auditors, and the inspector generals that Trump has fired to critically assess what could be cut and to understand the implications before doing so.

But he’s not doing any of that. He prefers to make splashy headlines that drive engagement on his X feed, even if they relate to cuts made by the previous Biden administration. He’s criticized cabinet officials like Rubio for not firing enough people in the State Department, even though some 1,500 people took early retirement buyouts. As Rubio reportedly challenged Elon in the infamous cabinet meeting last week — did Elon want Rubio to rehire all those people just so Elon could make a show of firing them again?

Few people in this world are driven by purely altruistic motives, so the question becomes — what’s Elon doing all of this for? To make America great again? Or, more likely, to centralize and safeguard his own power and wealth?

The more he continues to push at every cabinet agency, the more feathers he will inevitably ruffle in Trump’s administration. Trump will have little choice but to continue clipping back Elon’s wings until he’s fired, apprentice-style.

Just wait until Elon finally gets to “DOGE-ing” the Department of Defense. Something tells me he won’t be looking for “efficiencies” within the SpaceX government contract.

White Lotus - episode 4

No spoilers in case people haven’t seen it, but a few general points for consideration:

• People who move to Thailand are either hiding from something or seeking something. This was the overall theme of this episode, and the show nailed it. I loved the portrayal of the old, bald, and fat white guys who have made Thailand their new home. It just seemed so . . . believable.

• The damaged and broken characters of the show reflect reality. Yes, it’s a show, and it’s very dramatized, but the various struggles and demons that each character must grapple with are very reflective of reality and one of the big draws of the White Lotus. Everyone is so uniquely challenged, which makes the show very compelling.

• Building to a climax - this season’s White Lotus seems to have a slower build-up to a big climatic scene. We received a preview of what to expect with the shootout at the beginning of the show, but many other storylines have similar slow burns. Why would someone hide out near a White Lotus after committing crimes in a previous season at a different White Lotus? Will that person try to silence someone who recognized him? What other characters will spiral out of control and submit to various temptations? Or act recklessly to prove they’re tough and capable?

I can’t remember a show that has packed so much in through 4 episodes of a season. The diversity of characters and their struggles makes for riveting drama. So, if you’re not already watching it, get to it!

The latest from The Political Prism

Below are two recently published stories in The Political Prism. The first is a unique blend of personal storytelling, business case studies, politics, and ethical analysis. The second is a great perspective on our current macroeconomic situation, which, as I’m sure you’ve seen from markets recently, is a bit volatile. Give both of these stories a read.

• Can Ethics Survive in a Capitalist World? by

  Neela 🌶️

  • “What if our political affiliations aren’t perfect reflections of our values? What if they’re compromises, weighted averages of dozens of issues where we’ve had to pick sides even when the sides don’t quite fit?”

• The Economic Elephant in the Room by

  Dave Volek

  • “The Republicans are running the American economy more arbitrarily than most European nations in feudal times. Many new government directives are concocted daily. Often without much input from experts. Usually without serious oversight from Congress.”

On a lighter, doughier note

I have now tried 6 of the top 16 bagel joints in NYC as rated by the New York Times. It’s far more serious than any political or legal research. Below is the latest installment from Tal Bagels in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan.

More to come!

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Have a good week.

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