Elon Musk

As co-leader of DOGE, Musk engineered the largest peacetime federal workforce reduction on record. Federal rolls fell by over 270,000 workers, with government payroll down 9% (from 3.015 million to 2.744 million). Methods included: 'Fork in the Road' deferred resignation program (75,000 accepted), mass firing of 200,000 probationary employees, and 17,000 reduction-in-force terminations. OMB Director Russell Vought stated the goal was for bureaucrats to be 'traumatically affected' and 'wake up in the morning not wanting to go to work.'

Under DOGE's direction, USAID was effectively eliminated by July 2025. The agency's workforce was cut by 92% (from 4,800 to 378 employees), and 90% of contracts and grants were canceled. Cuts included $1.1 billion in malaria prevention, $171.7 million in food and clean water programs, and $435.2 million in education abroad. A federal judge ruled the dismantling was likely unconstitutional. Senator Schatz reported that over 360,000 people had already died as a result of not having food and medication in the wake of the funding cuts.

A Public Citizen report found Musk had direct business interest in over 70% of DOGE targets. On inauguration day, his companies faced $2.37 billion in potential liability from 65 regulatory actions across 11 agencies. DOGE then: fired FDA staff reviewing Neuralink, cut NHTSA staff that regulates Tesla autonomous vehicles, targeted the SEC investigating his Twitter stock purchase. DOJ dropped a SpaceX discrimination lawsuit. Starlink terminals were installed at GSA headquarters within days (normally takes months). The White House said Musk would self-police his own conflicts of interest.

Elon Musk attended Trump's second inauguration on January 20, 2025, seated on the platform with other notable guests including Cabinet nominees. He also spoke at Trump's inaugural rally at Capital One Arena.

In early 2025, Musk launched a social media campaign against UK's Labour government, publishing over 100 posts (100+ million views) falsely accusing PM Starmer of allowing grooming gangs to avoid prosecution for votes. Posts targeting UK increased 5.6-fold in January 2025. He explicitly called for votes for Germany's far-right AfD party before their February 2025 election. In August 2024, he posted 'Civil war is inevitable' in the UK during riots, prompting government rebuke. The EU's EDMO documented how his 'powerful disinformation machine works' across European politics.

Trump appointed Elon Musk as co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy. The advisory body aims to cut federal spending and regulations. Musk has proposed cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget and eliminating many government agencies.

Elon Musk donated over $277 million to support Trump's 2024 campaign and Republican causes, making him the single largest individual political donor in American history. The bulk went to his America PAC super PAC, which focused on voter turnout in swing states.

Throughout 2024, Elon Musk posted at least 87 claims about US elections that fact-checkers rated as false or misleading, amassing over 2 billion views. None received Community Notes fact-checks. He promoted the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory claiming Democrats were 'importing voters' (747 million views across 42 posts), spread voting machine fraud conspiracies, and shared an AI deepfake of Kamala Harris (133 million views). The Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated his political reach would have cost a campaign $24 million in ads.

In October 2024, Musk pledged through America PAC to give away $1 million per day to a registered voter in swing states who signed his petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. Legal experts and election law scholars raised concerns the sweepstakes could violate federal law prohibiting paying people to register to vote. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit alleging the program was an illegal lottery. A judge allowed the sweepstakes to continue. The program ran primarily in battleground states including Pennsylvania, a key swing state.

SpaceX deployed Starlink for disaster relief during Hurricanes Helene and Milton in October 2024, delivering more than 10,000 Starlink kits to affected areas. Initial offer required $349 equipment purchase with only one month free service, drawing criticism. SpaceX subsequently extended free service through end of 2024. The company also activated direct-to-cell emergency texting via T-Mobile partnership after FCC granted emergency authorization.

Elon Musk publicly endorsed Trump in July 2024 and appeared at Trump campaign rallies, jumping on stage at a Pennsylvania rally in October 2024. He used his X platform to actively promote Trump and attack Democrats, leveraging his massive following for political influence.

NHTSA identified a 'critical safety gap' in Tesla's Autopilot system, finding that its design 'was not sufficient to maintain drivers' engagement.' As of October 2024, NHTSA tracked 1,399 incidents where Tesla driver assistance was engaged within 30 seconds of collision, with 31 resulting in fatalities. The agency linked 467+ collisions and 13+ deaths specifically to Autopilot. Tesla issued a 2 million vehicle recall in December 2023. In October 2024, NHTSA opened a new investigation into 2.4 million vehicles with FSD after a fatal pedestrian crash.

SpaceX facilities have injury rates significantly above industry averages. Starbase (Texas) had a Total Recordable Incident Rate of 4.27 per 100 workers in 2024 vs. industry average of 1.6. A Reuters investigation found ~600 previously unreported workplace injuries since 2014, including 100+ cuts/lacerations, 29 broken bones, 17 crushed hands/fingers, and 9 head injuries. Employees alleged Musk pressured workers to skip safety procedures to meet deadlines. In November 2025, a worker was crushed by metal support from a crane.

In March 2024, xAI released Grok-1 model weights under the Apache 2.0 license, and in August 2025 open-sourced Grok 2.5, with a promise to open-source Grok 3 within six months. Musk positioned this as fulfilling his commitment to open AI development, consistent with his earlier criticism of OpenAI for becoming closed-source. However, AI experts including Bruce Perens (creator of the Open Source Definition) noted that xAI released only model weights, not the training data or training process, making the 'open source' label disputed.

Elon Musk has repeatedly attacked DEI programs on X/Twitter, calling them 'discrimination' and 'just another word for racism.' He endorsed ending corporate DEI initiatives and has promoted anti-DEI content, amplifying the movement against diversity programs in tech and corporate America.

From 2023-2024, Musk used his X account (the most-followed on the platform) to systematically amplify conspiracy theories and far-right disinformation. He endorsed the antisemitic 'great replacement' conspiracy theory, boosted anti-immigrant conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants, amplified accounts like @EndWokeness and @libsoftiktok (which inspired bomb threats at a children's hospital), and shared election fraud conspiracies. A 2023 Science Feedback analysis found 'super-spreader' disinformation accounts saw a 42% increase in engagement, with Musk personally interacting with their top posts.

In December 2022, Musk dissolved Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, the advisory body responsible for policies on hate speech, child exploitation, and self-harm. This came amid a documented surge in hate speech following Musk's acquisition: the N-word saw a nearly 500% increase in usage in the 12 hours after the ownership transfer, antisemitic tweets mentioning 'Jew' rose fivefold, and anti-Black slurs appeared at nearly 3x the pre-acquisition rate. Homophobic and transphobic slurs rose 52% and 62% respectively, per CCDH research.

Within weeks of acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk dramatically restructured the company. He fired approximately 3,750 employees (50% of workforce) within days, triggering a WARN Act lawsuit. He gutted content moderation by firing 80% of moderation staff and reinstating banned accounts including white nationalists and conspiracy theorists. On December 15, he suspended accounts of journalists from CNN, NYT, Washington Post, and others who had reported critically on him. The mass layoffs affected around 1,000 employees in California and 418 in New York, with employees given no advance notice.

In late 2022, Musk secretly ordered engineers not to enable Starlink satellite connectivity near the Crimean coast, disrupting a Ukrainian submarine drone attack on the Russian naval fleet. The drones lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly. Musk said he feared Russia would respond with nuclear weapons. Ukrainian officials begged him to restore service. Musk claimed Starlink was never active over Crimea and that Ukraine made an 'emergency request' to activate it to Sevastopol. The incident highlighted the risks of one individual controlling critical military communications infrastructure.

In June 2022, eight SpaceX employees were fired after distributing an open letter to executives criticizing Elon Musk's behavior and workplace culture. Complaint alleges Musk personally ordered the terminations. In January 2024, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging illegal firings. In June 2024, the eight former employees filed a lawsuit alleging harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and wrongful termination.