Elon Musk's time in the Trump administration is over. Did he learn his lesson about politics?
Hey Elon, I hope you learned your lesson.
Like so many CEOs before him , Elon Musk offered up engineering solutions to political problems and discovered the federal government is an entirely different beast from a globe-spanning corporation. Creating policy is an emotional process, not a mechanical one.
The world's richest Texan returns to Austin chastened for his naivete.
On Wednesday, Musk was still shocked, SHOCKED!, to learn President Donald Trump was not serious about reducing government spending or reducing the deficit. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency was a sideshow to distract supporters from what the administration was really doing, which was reducing services to the poor to cut taxes on the rich .
"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," he told CBS Sunday Morning . "I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful … but I don't know if it could be both."
Musk always overpromises, but he had incredibly audacious goals when he appointed himself Trump's "first buddy." After all, the Tesla and SpaceX boss had spent $225 million of his own money to elect Trump, and he expected power that reflected his contribution.
Almost a third of the U.S. government's spending was fraud, waste and abuse, Musk declared. Cutting $2 trillion from the budget would be easy , he promised.
Musk recruited young programmers to hack government computers and search for places to save. Suddenly, the new goal was $1 trillion .
The DOGE team, filled with misfits and fascists , took over conference rooms and ejected any civil servant who dared to ask for their last names, let alone question the legality of their hacking. Musk's target dropped to $200 billion.
To date, Musk has reduced spending by maybe $150 billion, and very little of it was actual fraud or abuse. His idea of waste turned out to be HIV prevention programs , food for starving children and National Weather Service flights to track hurricanes .
Musk's companies, meanwhile, racked up a mixed bag of gains and losses.
Trump showcased Teslas at the White House in a product placement stunt that put the administration's corruption on full display. The president oohed and aahed over Musk's geriatric model lineup .
Yet Trump and his Republican allies in Congress want to roll back national fuel efficiency standards. That's bad news for Tesla, which earned $27.6 billion selling fuel efficiency credits last year to automakers who didn't meet those requirements. Credits made up a third of Tesla's income in the first quarter of 2025.
If Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill" eliminates automakers' need to buy credits from Tesla, it will cut a big chunk of the company's revenues. Those losses will be on top of customers boycotting Tesla due to Musk's work for the Trump administration.
Tesla sales in 32 European countries plunged 49% in April compared to March as anti-Musk sentiment spread and its models appeared more stale. Battery electric vehicle sales in Europe overall rose by 28% as consumers opted for other models. China's BYD sold more EVs in Europe and China than Tesla , becoming the world's largest EV manufacturer .
SpaceX may fare better under Trump. The company has won $17 billion in federal contracts since 2015, and Trump's plan for a Golden Dome missile defense system promises to keep SpaceX very busy launching satellites. The company dominates the U.S. space industry.
NASA budget cuts, meanwhile, would shift contracts away from Boeing and Lockheed Martin to SpaceX, the New York Times reported . The one NASA program slated to get a $1 billion boost is a mission to Mars, which is Musk's personal goal for SpaceX.
All of this new business for SpaceX relies on a very temperamental Trump, who is unhappy with his ally's recent comments . Musk's mouth has gotten him into plenty of trouble in the past; he needs to go silent lest he joins Trump's enemies list and finds his federal contracts cancelled.
While Musk may ultimately profit financially from his time as a special government employee, the damage to his personal reputation is done.
No one thinks of Musk as the Tony Stark character from the Iron Man comics anymore. We know too much now about his bevy of baby mommas , authoritarian inclinations and disregard for the less fortunate ever to believe he is a force for good.
"I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics," Musk told Ars Technica , a tech news outlet.
Yes, Elon, you did. Billionaires always overestimate their ability to solve any problem. Stick to process engineering, Elon, and leave the politics to professionals.
Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his "Tomlinson's Take" newsletter at Single Sparkle/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter .
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