Cutbacks and Clashes

In an era defined by disruption and constant reinvention, Elon Musk's brief but headline-grabbing tenure as a special government advisor to US President Donald Trump was both a predictable and cautionary tale.

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Musk's departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Wednesday marks the end of a chapter that once seemed poised to revolutionize Washington's entrenched bureaucracy. Instead, it underscored the limitations even for a maverick billionaire when navigating the slow-moving machinery of governance. For a man known for defying gravity—both literally and metaphorically—Musk's foray into the political world was a stark reminder that the laws of political inertia are even more formidable than those of physics. Musk, whose entrepreneurial spirit transformed electric vehicles and commercial spaceflight, found himself at odds with the grinding resistance of the federal bureaucracy. His ambition to slash federal spending from USD 2 trillion to a mere USD 150 billion might have captured headlines, but it also illuminated a fundamental truth: governance, especially in a democracy, does not move at the speed of a Falcon Heavy launch. The frictions Musk encountered—both from political adversaries and his own allies in the administration—were predictable. After all, Washington's corridors of power are notoriously resistant to outside attempts at reform. From the outset, Musk's target—“wastef