Elon Musk’s political adventure is over

Not with a big blow, but rather creeping, the bromance Between Elon Musk and Donald Trump came to an end for the time being. The tech billionaire reported on Wednesday night tweet That is his task as a special government official, in charge of ‘reducing waste’ expenses. Musk pointed out the end of the « planned period » (of a maximum of 130 days before the hiring of external experts) and « thanked President Trump for this opportunity. »

In recent weeks, the inevitability of his departure had already become obvious. Politically, the symbiotic relationship yielded both men less and less, while this relationship even damaged Musks corporate empire.

Pseudo-ministerie

The intense relationship between the two started last summer. After Trump survived a murder attack during a rally in mid -July, Musk decided to support his candidacy. Financially, by ultimately donating $ 290 million to Trump and the Republicans. And in deed, by campaigning for the presidential candidate.

Trump eagerly laid himself to Musks Dollars and Business Genie and after his election win the two became inseparable. During the transition period, Musk moved in on Trumps Landgoed Mar-A-Lago and was given great control over the composition of the new government. After the sworn, Musk moved to Washington, where he flattened the door of the White House and was in charge of a so -called ‘Department for Government Efficiency’.

This pseudo-ministerie-abbreviated dooge, to a memecoin that the entrepreneur has been promoting for years-had to lose the federal government considerably. In the early weeks, Musk that he could find $ 1,000 to 2,000 billion in savings by organizing the government smarter and tackling ‘waste’.

With a team of sometimes very young engineers, mostly from his own companies, he opened the attack on the federal government. All kinds of government areas – from development aid and the national parks to the public broadcaster and the tax authorities – ended up on Musks Hakblok. To detect alleged fraud, it was broken into databases and payment systems full of privacy -sensitive information from American citizens. At around 2.3 million federal officials, they were threatened with dismissal and they were called upon to leave themselves.

Musk always motivated that mission by expressing great concerns about the sustainability of public finances. The US national debt (more than 36,000 billion) really had to be reduced, he said. Just like on a company account, black figures had to be written after years of potentifying, otherwise the US would eventually go bankrupt.

Missed austerity goal

If this was really the mission of DOGE, then the front would be doomed. The US government is called « a huge insurance company with an army »: the vast majority of money merges with care schemes, retention facilities and defense. To find the billions of savings that Musk screened with, he should also have cut those budget posts. That is politically very sensitive.

With that, for Musk, especially ideologically motivated cutbacks remained on progressive policy programs. He shared them with great pleasure: from subsidies for condoms in Africa to a musical in Colombia about a transgender artist.

Last month, Doge claimed that these gathered millions of cuts were added to 160 billion dollars (a tenth of its original saving goal) and that 12 percent of the national civil servant would have left or dismissed.

At the same time, the chaos that the demolition campaign also led to higher government spending. According to a calculation, Seriously taken by Musks own AI-Chatbot Grokthat damage can be up to 135 billion.

Moreover, it must be apparent whether all interventions will last in court. In this way, thousands may be able to recalculate their job -fired officials. And in the end the congress is about the budget and cutbacks on it, not an unelected ‘Shadow President’.

Musk was therefore highly disappointed about the budget and tax plan that the Republicans narrowly managed to guide through the house on Wednesday. This to ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill‘Baptized bill allows the national debt to rise further by not pruning the high budget deficit.

Also, the cutbacks that DOGE initiated in recent months were not cast in legislation, as some Libertaire Republican delegates argued. On Wednesday, the White House drained that it wants to send the abolition of the USAID and public broadcasters NPR and NPS to the congress.

The continuing lack of budget discipline in Washington is destroyed the entire mission of Doge in one fell swoop, had to recognize Musk in a TV interview this weekend. Although as a multi -billionaire he will personally benefit strongly from the extension of Trumps tax cuts in the plan, he said he was ‘disappointed’ about the budget plan. “A law can either piglist or beautiful are, but not both, « says Musk.

Access to the White House

The aim of Musks austerity mission may have failed, his million -donations have paid to the president in other areas. Even after his departure from the capital, the months -long proximity to the White House can still benefit from various companies. A small hold:

On Musks advocacy, an astronaut from his rocket company SpaceX has been appointed as a new boss of space agency NASA, which can lead to more government contracts.

A watchdog for supervision of consumer credits was canceled, which can be attractive for Musk if he wants to add a payment function to X.

Musk Satellite Network Starlink can benefit from Trumps decides to re -tun up the rollout of rural internet and to renew the communication network of traffic controllers.

Doge engineers have had access to all kinds of IT systems from the government. They may have done data vumps there to train the large-language models of Musks AI company, Democrats fear.

Includers have been appointed to the Department of Transport and at Air Traffic Agency FAA. They can be more friendly towards Tesla (who wants self -managing robot taxis on the road) and SpaceX (which wants to launch even more rockets).

Reputation damage to companies

Yet Musks Tijd in Washington is certainly not only positive. This was already apparent at the beginning of this month. Weeks before the end of his 130-day period, he reported that he would focus more on his companies again. According to Musk, they desperately needed his attention. At Tesla to quickly launch the launch of self -driving car, at X to solve technical hitches, at SpaceX to prevent his prestigious star ships from crashing after half a minute.

Above all, his withdrawal seemed to have to limit further reputation damage to his most important company: Tesla. The sales of the plug car brand suffered strongly in recent months under the political adventure of the CEO. After open interference with German and British politics, the question in Europe fell with tens of percent. Many fewer people still want to be seen in a ‘musk mobile’.

Internal broke unrest about Musk at Tesla. Matthew Labrot, a former top manager, started an online campaign to get him away. According to him, Tesla was not in trouble because of Musks absence, but by his political career. « He makes it appear as if the problem is that he did not pay enough attention to Tesla. But it was not up to us. We are fighting the enormous cloudburst he poured out over us, » said Labrot in last week The Washington Post.

The Republicans also seemed to get that Musk could harm their party. This spring they already lost an important court election in Wisconsin, while the billionaire had held a campaign there and had donated considerably to ‘their’ candidate. Polls showed that Americans began to lose their confidence in Musks austerity mission and appreciated him less and less.

That also threatened to shine on Trump. Because although the Democrats look steerless after their election defeat of November, they found a grateful opponent in Musk in Musk. The influence of the tech billionaire was successfully used by the left-wing representatives Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for broader criticism of « the oligarchy » among Trump II.

Cover for Republicans

Whether the brotherhood between the richest and the most powerful man on Earth is over for good must be seen in the coming period. Musk stated last week during an interview On the Qatar Economic Forum that he has finished politics and donations. « I’ve done enough, » he said. « I will donate much less in the future. »

For the Republicans, this can mean a substantial financial loss in the run -up to the Congress elections of November 2026. In the election race 2024, Musk was responsible for almost a seventh of all gifts to Trump and his party.

When asked if his withdrawal was prompted by the negative effect on his companies, Musk replied evasively. « Well, if I see a reason for political donations in the future, I will do it. I don’t see any reason at the moment. »

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