Has Elon Musk become a kaiju?

He’s great at EVs and rockets, not so great at public policy

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People are plenty riled up about Elon Musk, to the point of vandalizing Tesla cars. Vandalism is a crime that must be prosecuted.

But there are disturbing indications Musk has become punch-drunk on power and attention, and is making glib pronouncements about matters he doesn’t understand.

The concern is not Musk’s opinions – he can hold any opinion he pleases – but his lack of basic knowledge about American government, law and civics. When you are running an agency called the Department of Government Efficiency, and you don’t understand how government works, that’s a red flag.

And it’s fine to be highly critical of Washington institutions, which invite criticism. But the institutions of American governance made Musk’s fortune possible. The United States must be doing something right!

Before diving in, let’s get one objection to Musk out of the way: that he holds great power despite being unelected. This aspersion (alert – SAT word) is cast as though the situation were unprecedented.

There are many people in Washington D.C. who hold great power despite being neither elected nor confirmed by the Senate.

The chief of staff at the White House is neither elected nor confirmed. No one heading the Department of State, Department of Defense or any other Cabinet agency has been elected to that post, nor have their deputy secretaries or undersecretaries. Cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries and undersecretaries are Senate-confirmed, but the next step down is populated by persons not elected and not confirmed who, on a practical basis, run the Treasury Department, Agriculture Department and so on.

Actual photograph of Elon Musk fighting government spending. Image courtesy Kaiju Pictures.

Beyond this, many close presidential advisors have been business people who were neither elected nor Senate confirmed.

Woodrow Wilson extended great power to the businessman Edward House, who had his own apartment inside the White House. Edward House was not elected and never the subject of confirmation hearings.

Fun fact: the gentleman insisted on being addressed as “Colonel House” though he never served in the military.

During negotiations for the Versailles Treaty and for creation of the League of Nations, Wilson delegated most issues to House, often refusing to speak with his Secretary of State, Robert Lansing.

Musk may be doing well or poorly, but his status as an unelected, not-confirmed power broker with direct access to the Oval Office just isn’t novel.

So is he doing well or poorly?

Musk and Trump want to shut down the Department of Education, the most underachieving of Cabinet agencies. Public school math and reading proficiency have declined since DOE came into existence and started spending freely -- $82 billion current-year budget.