The Department of Giving Up: The END of Elon Musk
Musk claims “no more political spending because [he’s] done enough” but all signs point to a thin-skinned bully experiencing the definition of a Pyrrhic victory
It’s only fitting that after months dedicated to ending the livelihoods of countless government employees through his sham Department of Government “Efficiency” that the most recent government employee to leave D.C. is none other than Elon Musk himself.
For nearly a year, Elon Musk has done everything in his power to spend his way into becoming the new face of MAGA and the Republican party at large. From tens of millions of dollars spent on getting Trump into office, to sticking his fingers in the honey pot of foreign elections in Germany and elsewhere, to even controlling the narrative online completely by buying (and ruining) Twitter to make it more favorable to conservatives, Musk may have done more damage than any single Republican donor in history.
But was his victory a Pyrrhic one? Did he get caught in the crossfire, hit with the shrapnel of his own chaos? The Democrats may be able to recover from the damage Elon Musk has done… but will Elon Musk ever recover from the damage he’s done to himself?
On May 20, Politico reported that the man “who become meme” announced he had “done enough” and was planning on cutting back on his political spending shortly after vacating his spot within the Trump White House. When asked if the move was due to the relentlessly daily criticism he received via his leadership in DOGE, he dodged the question. I think we all know the answer to that one, though: it is. Because the sheer amount of failures have been absolutely DAMAGING to his brand.
After spending $290 million of his own money essentially to buy the 2024 election, Musk started swinging his metaphorical dick around every which way. But like Icarus, he swung that dick too close to the sun and was castrated in the process (that’s how the saying goes, right?). He did everything he could to sway the Wisconsin Supreme Court election; he did not succeed, and lost an estimated $20 plus million, on top of a number of $1 million checks he handed out to supporters in a totally-not-illegal way. He did everything he could to buy Alice Weidel and the far-right “Nazi-adjacent” Alternative for Germany party an election; he failed spectacularly.
And then there’s DOGE. Massive promises of “$2 trillion in government waste” being slashed, an oath to discover RAMPANT FRAUD… only for the real number to total $170 billion by decimating government contracts like the one that funds court appointed advocates for children (usually victims of abuse). And according to USA Today, it gets worse, because, “While the department claims to have saved the United States $160 billion, third-party groups found that Musk’s chainsaw approach will actually cost the country $135 billion.” Oh, and that fraud he said he’d find? It’s likely he’s found absolutely no new fraud… at all.
Politico reports his efforts were rewarded with a 58 percent disapproval rating with the U.S. public, and a number of protests led against Tesla cars and showrooms all over. At the same time, Tesla’s stocks had tanked at one point somewhere between 50 and 70%, largely due to the unpopularity of Musk’s time in D.C.. Back in December 2024, the stocks were nearly $500 per share; by April of this year, that amount dropped 52% to $235 a share. Which is ironic, considering that was lower than Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said they would EVER be. When Musk announced he was done with political spending, Tesla stocks rose again, but they’re still nowhere near the highs they were once at, with them peaking at $347.25 as of yesterday, May 21.
Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter initially left the company essentially worthless, tanking the value of, erm, “X” to as low as $10 billion, before rebounding in a HUGE way this year… back to $44 billion. We also know that the Cybertruck is, objectively, a MASSIVE flop: since 2023, Tesla has sold actual MILLIONS of its various kinds of Tesla vehicles. Objectively, Tesla cars are doing pretty well… except the Cybertruck, which since late 2023, has sold… 43,000 cars. Worse, the Cybertruck has depreciated 45% in just ONE YEAR… to the point that it took until this month for Tesla to even accept Cybertrucks as trade-ins. EVEN WORSE, a $100,000 AWD Foundation Series, with only 6,200 miles on the odometer…
…is worth $65,400. At BEST.
When I talked about this being a Pyrrhic victory for Elon Musk, I meant it. There is indeed fortune of many kinds awaiting him, with USA Today reporting that Trump’s cosign of Musk has led to business deals with India, Somalia, Lesotho, and more, on top of “billions of dollars in federal contracts” for SpaceX, as well as an Amtrak deal for The Boring Company to take over the building of the Fredrick Douglass Tunnel program.
That same article also points out that Musk is “also getting off the hook for alleged discrimination at several of his companies. Multiple investigations against Musk-owned companies have been dropped, while agencies that are charged with investigating businesses have seen their departments slashed by DOGE cuts.” This is maybe the most grim outcome for the idea that Elon Musk, the criminal, could in any way be held accountable for his actions. By buying this presidency, Musk has bought his freedom… but that freedom comes at an even deeper cost than any financial loss could ever create.
That cost is his dignity.
Reports came out that leaked a “humiliating tongue-lashing” Musk received from multiple members of the Trump administration, from around the time Musk began to take a step back from the public eye. An argument with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, where Musk screamed “FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU” down the halls of the White House, did nothing to help Musk’s reputation - and may have even worsened it within the Trump admin.
As Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker write for The Atlantic:
“[A]s Musk winds down his official time in Washington, he has found himself isolated within the upper reaches of the Trump administration, having failed to build necessary alliances and irritating many of the department and agency heads he was ostensibly there to help. His team failed to find anything close to the 13-figure savings he’d promised. Court challenges clipped other projects. Cabinet secretaries blocked DOGE cuts they said reduced crucial services. All the while, Musk’s net worth fell, his companies tanked in value, and he became an object of frequent gossip and ridicule.”
Since then, Musk has given off the appearance of a man on the verge of breaking. At Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum, Musk was questioned by UK broadcaster Mishal Husain (and in a fair way, I might add) about DOGE, Tesla’s fall from grace, and SpaceX… and he proceeded to react like a petulant brat. He called Husain an NPC, while giving one-word NPC-esque answers himself. He whined about the “violence” threatened against him in the Tesla protests, stating his aggressors were “on the wrong side of history." He pushed the “white genocide in South Africa” theory, mere days after Grok shoehorned it into random answers on Twitter (seriously, if you don’t know about this, read it here: it’s insane).
Merriam-Webster explains that a Pyrrhic victory comes from a time back in 279 B.C., when Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, defeated the Romans at the Battle of Ausculum, but all of his best officers and most of his soldiers died in the process. A Pyrrhic victory became known from that battle as “a victory that is not worth winning because so much is lost to achieve it.”
It’s only fitting that DOGE promised to eliminate fraud - and the biggest fraud is leaving with his tail between his legs. Elon Musk IS Pyrrhus, because he came out on top - but at what cost?
" ... but will Elon Musk ever recover from the damage he’s done to himself?" I, for one, sincerely hope that answer is a resounding NO, but HELL NO! As for dignity, I don't recall Musk ever faking a shred of dignity. ... especially jumping up and down, like the toddlers he spawns, showing his belly to the crowd. This single person has proved the frightening fragility of Democracy. But, he sure as hell had plenty of help. Now, can we dismantle The Heritage Foundation? Because they are the genuine "thieves in the night."
#ElonBreaksAllHisToys