I have to admit that I got caught thinking small and with too little creativity, some lazy analysis on this one. When it came to Elon Musk’s very sudden intense interest in politics, I thought that it was primarily about just feeling like an insider, the guy able to buy influence. He can’t be president but he can buy one and then play president.
I thought Musk had so much money that money itself didn’t play that big a role, only the power to do some things he wanted to do. But then I read Mark Cuban’s explanation about the future of A.I., especially Artificial General Intelligence (A.G.I.) and who controls that future and I saw why Musk would get involved in the A.I. area (Where Musk helped appoint the Czar). And now, on reading Sen. Chris Murphy put DOGE all together, it becomes obvious that – true as it may be Elon likes the proximity to power just for power’s sake, he loves the attention, loves the White House, etc., etc. Musk is still there primarily to make more money, and it becomes even more obvious when one considers the matter as laid out by Sen. Murphy.
We have already gone over the role that control of Artificial Intelligence plays in this administration, there is a reason that Bezos, Zuck, and Musk, were all sucking up on Inauguration Day. But Murphy sets out the DOGE side of the same coin and how it is that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) works to create more Musk wealth. According to Murphy in the video below (And transcript below that), it all follows when one considers Musk’s exact moves:
I want to connect some dots for you.
What is similar about the four agencies DOGE targeted first? They all intersect with major business interests of Musk and Trump's billionaire cabal. DOGE isn't about government efficiency. It's about making the billionaires richer. pic.twitter.com/JrbxQxaALw
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 14, 2025
I want to walk you through the agencies that Doege has targeted from the outset because it tells you a story, a story that is not about cutting government waste. A story that’s about making Elon Musk rich.
Okay. Now watch how Murphy does this:
Okay. Let me walk you through this. The four agencies that DOJ’s goes after first are the CFP, and the Consumer Protection Bureau. Musk needs to destroy that agency. Why? Because he wants to set up a new global payment app on Twitter. And the only agency out there that would make sure that consumers are protected from abuses by a global payment app on Twitter, the CFP. The second agency he goes after is the NLRB. That’s the National Labor Relations Board.
Of all of them, Murphy starts with the weakest because it seems unlikely that Twitter or “X” will ever be trusted to be a major payment App given the players already in the game (Venmo, Cash App, Facebook, etc.) but to be sure, anyone wanting to get into that game certainly wants a means to control the CFPB which exists solely to keep people from getting screwed over and hurt by big companies, and thus is always set out as the bad guy in any Republican setting. But Murphy gets stronger as he gets more specific on other issues:
Why does he go after the NLRB? Because the NLRB right now has 20 open cases against Tesla for union busting. The NLRB doesn’t exist functionally any longer. And guess what? Nobody can hold Elon Musk to account when he tries to destroy efforts by his workers to organize the third. USAID. He destroys USAID.
BANG! Yes, nothing threatens big profits more than a nice big union full of specialized workers of the type envisioned by Adam Smith. Indeed, there may be very few people more threatened by unionization than Musk solely because his products are super specialized, whether battery-powered, computer-driven cars, or self-landing rockets, or neural interfaces, Musk’s companies employ a lot of people that actually could cripple him if they went on strike because it’s not like they can be easily replaced. The better organized Musk’s workers, especially at Tesla, the prime source of Musk’s wealth, the more Musk becomes vulnerable to some kind of weird profit-sharing thing of the type contemplated by capitalism, where the workforce gets some of the profit. And now on to USAID and this one is a “killer.”
Why does that matter? Because the number one that benefits from the USAID being destroyed is China. Where does Musk make all of his cars? China. Where does he have a half a dozen outstanding regulatory issues? China. China’s happy about the destruction of USAID willing to do Musk more favors.
Any time anyone has a major role to play in the U.S. government, one should ask whether it helps that person to deal with China and how. China is that big a concern. I write this here all the time, but none of us should be cheering against the Trump administration concerning China – not with their human rights violations and global aspirations. And no one benefits more from a China that just wants “business” than the king of electric vehicles and space, Musk. As I have often said, Musk is essentially a mid-sized nation with GDP wealth, but with China, Musk has even more influence than a mid-sized nation. China needs Tesla and Tesla needs China. Musk’s money rests in Tesla at 10 times the rate of his other companies. So, Murphy is surely exactly right on this one.
And finally, he goes after the Treasury Department. He’s got access to the entire Department of Treasury payments system. That’s convenient for somebody who wants to build this global payment app. He can research his competitors and maybe he can even put them on the do not pay list, which is this top secret list of companies that don’t get payments from the Treasury Department Musk now has control over it Treasury, USAID, and LRB, CFP for agencies that, if destroyed, make Elon Musk and his billionaire cronies a ton of money.
Murphy is likely being too nice, if anything, on the Treasury Department thing. Yes, sure – Musk wants to be the payment pal dude of the world. But he also wants to be able to hurt people and access to people’s financial data is one sure way to hurt them, as well as tipping off tax audits, and investigations into one’s rivals. That kind of access, the type necessary to take direct aim at a rival, is invaluable and one need not hold it for a long time (Indeed, it’s likely dangerous to hold it for too long), just enough to take one’s shot. Musk is that type of fellow. Not a good fella.
So there it is, Murphy on Musk and why I was caught thinking small. Have no doubt, that I still think that Musk is so wealthy and in such “niche” areas, that he is still likely most motivated by proximity to power as “cool” and possible control of AGI, but Murphy sure brings receipts on the DOGE stuff. It is not a coincidence that Musk’s actions have been largely confined. We don’t see any big Medicare fraud cases being made (Where a lot of waste goes), or specific contracts in the defense industry… No – we see what we see and Murphy puts a real label on it. Corruption as an explanation.
That and AGI. Never forget China. And never forget that AI and “Grok” or “Chat GPT” or “____” is the next Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple, all rolled into one because soon enough, very little will be done anywhere on anything without artificial intelligence, and it’ll all come from the same source, either Musk, Bezos, Zuck, or Google. One of those… Or China.
God Bless:Â I can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter/X at @JasonMiciak and now on Bluesky.
Chilling and Frightening.
And now a word from “our” Justice Department….oh, wait!!!
Enshitification in action .