Oh fine. Now Elon Musk is proving that domestic terrorism works.
Elon Musk said yesterday that he will significantly cut back his commitment to DOGE beginning in May to focus more time and energy on Tesla, which this week reported a 71% drop in profits compared with the first quarter of 2024. In so doing, he immediately validated the illegal and unethical domestic terrorism campaign against him that has been wink-winked as valid by leading Democrats and Trump-haters.
Other factors have hurt Tesla sales and stock shares, such as increased competition from Chinese electric carmakers and nervousness about the effects of Trump’s tariffs, and Tesla had been shaky even before Musk joined the MAGA effort last year. Never mind that: the progressive criminals, assholes and morons who have been vandalizing Musk’s cars and attacking his dealerships will look upon Elon’s retreat as a triumph. That conclusion will lead to more of the same, both aimed at Musk and other targets.
Is it possible that Musk didn’t anticipate that he, and therefore his most famous business would become the target of Axis hostility and violence once he allied himself to the New Hitler? Amazing. One of the great advantages of having the world’s richest man spearhead Trump’s government-cutting efforts was that he would be immune to financial extortion. The Left of 2025 is largely devoid of honor, conscience, decency, remorse or ethical constraints. There could be nothing more dangerous to the nation at this moment than Musk signaling that violence is an effective, and thus, in the eyes of Machiavellians, a justifiable tactic to achieve political dominance.
I was going to award Musk a special Ethics Hero designation for his crucial contributions to civic discourse with his rescue of Twitter and his commitment to DOGE. It would over-shadow Musk’s multiple Ethics Dunce awards and related blunders last year. I’m glad I waited. Yesterday’s announcement was irresponsible and cowardly, two traits that are incompatible with heroism.
Added: Many commenters on this post have cited Musk’s temporary status as the reason for his reduced commitment to DOGE going forward, But Musk himself didn’t say that, and he could have. Instead, he specifically said that his reason for sharply reducing his participation in the cost and waste-cutting project the need to manage Tesla affairs in the wake of its declining fortunes. Moreover, even under the law cited by many of the commenters attempting to make excuses for Musk, he would be required to leave Doge near the end of May, not this month.
He has allowed the supporters of violence and terrorism as a political tool in the U.S. to feel vindicated.
Ethics Alarms 
The immediate question I have is, if Musk was already planning on returning his focus to his businesses after his status a special governmental employee expired in May, should the attacks on Tesla forced him to extend his contract with the government to avoid the appearance of caving to the domestic terrorists?
A second question I have is whether the expiration of Musk’s contract in May was decided upon after all the attacks on Tesla, or if that had been the plan all along. It seems to me that the WaPo is trying to make a victory out of something that was going to happen anyway.
Re #2: If it was understood before the attacks that Musk would step away in May, I never read or herad it.
Re #1: Absolutely!
I have heard talk within the last several weeks that he had only planned to be involved with DOGE for 120 days (or something).
In other words, I was never under the impression that his was a permanent position.
After all, given his position with Tesla, he has fiduciary obligations to fulfill there that cannot be delayed indefinitely.
-Jut
There is this:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/04/15/where-is-elon-musk-doge-position-complete/83097620007/
Relevant Quote:
Officially, Musk is designated as a special government employee, allowing him to work temporarily for 130 days.
According to the U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority, his employee status is “not to exceed 130 days during any period of 365 consecutive days.”
-Jut
According to The Economic Times, those in special advisory roles can only work 130 days per year. Elon Musk is already at Day 92. He’s worked daily and if he continues that way, he will have to stop in May per regulations. As usual, the mainstream media is lying by omission.
Not only that, but news sources in February made noise about whether or not Musk would be kept in violation of that 130-day cap.
For example:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/28/elon-musk-doge-work-limit-023375
Or NPR 2/13/2025: (I am avoiding including multiple links to keep from being thrown into moderation).
“In 1962, Congress created the role of “special government employee,” which allows the executive branch, the legislative branch and independent federal agencies to bring on employees for specific roles on a temporary basis.
Typically, SGEs are hired as experts or consultants or serve as members of federal advisory committees, of which there are roughly 1, 000 across the U.S. government.
SGEs are limited to working for the government for no more than 130 days out of a 365-day period, though they can work multiple years, and they can either be paid or unpaid. NPR has reported that Musk is not being paid for his work with DOGE.”
Or “The Economic Times” 3/31/2025 Headlined: Elon Musk can work only 130 days in his current role as DOGE head; what will he do after that? Here’s what Donald Trump says”
As you can imagine, the spin in many of these articles was that the President would find a way around the rule because we all know Trump doesn’t respect the rule of law – or something like that.
Bottom line: the rule says he has to go, even if Teslas weren’t being vandalized and his profits weren’t sinking. The media will probably do a volte-face from these earlier articles and spin it that Musk is really taking time off to help his business and that he would definitely being staying past the required time limit if that weren’t the case.
And here is Fortune:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/elon-musk-supposed-government-special-074300732.html
They acknowledge there is a cap on the amount of time Musk can serve in this role so Musk suggesting he will work longer than that has sent up their red flags. Even if Musk is serious about extending his role beyond the legal limits, I have a hard time trusting the msm to report it honestly because so much of what they report is disingenuous.
Yep. In short, to avoid a confirmation fight, Musk was made a part-timer.
I read somewhere that there is a 120 day limit to the President appointing someone to a temporary position like this.
Since when do you have to commit professional and financial suicide to be deemed ethical? Musk IS his companies. He’s set DOGE in motion. His work is done there. I’m pretty sure at least half of Tesla is publicly traded. I’m sure the plaintiffs’ security litigators are licking their chops and drafting their class action complaints accusing Musk of breach of fiduciary duty (as pointed out by Jut above) which if successful, could likely wipe Musk out. I just don’t see this as a win for antifa. Musk needs to get back to his knitting. The Trump DOJ needs to go after all these terrorists under applicable federal law. Local DAs will let all these creeps off, as has the DA in Minneapolis who sent a vandal into a diversion program!
Perhaps Kash Patel will persuade some of the non-woke FBI special agents to take a break from bullying parents at school board meetings and do the business they’re obligated to do like you know, rounding up these a-hole actual, real, authentic domestic terrorists.
I’m just the messenger so please don’t firebomb my house or kidnap my children.
He could have and should framed his withdrawal as required by law and consistent with his original commitment. Framing it as “Tesla needs me, and thus those firebombings had the desired effect” was irresponsible.
[I have just now expanded the post to clarify this.]
I don’t think it’s completely fair to frame it this way. He’s the CEO of multiple companies as well as taking on DOGE, which is likely MUCH more time intensive than he expected. For him to drop one (or more) of these roles when it’s clear that he cannot keep this many plates spinning could be framed as capitulating to vandals and thugs, but it could also be that he’s rightly focusing his attention where he’s duty-bound to do so–on his day job.
The timing supports this framing too–he is making changes in response to a bad quarterly earnings report.
I agree this is not a fair characterization:
Jack: “even under the law cited by many of the commenters attempting to make excuses for Musk. My cite was from weeks ago. I have known for weeks that his assignment was temporary. The timing is another matter. now vs. May 31? Does not matter. Any day saved now could be used in the next year if needed.
but, I am not making excuses for him. The suggestion is offensive. I could just as easily accuse Jack of incompetence duncery declarations for not knowing this issue has been in play since Musk came on
could he have pushed back against a predictable narrative? Yes.
should he have predicted that narrative? Yeah, probably.
Thus, bad messaging is the only real error.
-Jut
But messaging is crucial, he knows it, and he gave the terrorists cover and encouragement anyway.
Okay. For the sake of discussion, I’ll stipulate this has given the terrorists cover and encouragement. But I would say it’s only given the lunatic left cover and encouragement. Anyone with any sense would be horrified by what has happened to Tesla vehicles and related facilities. Any normal voter is saying, “Isn’t anyone on the left going to criticize this sort of behavior?” This just shows anyone with a modicum of insight how intolerant the left has become and what a threat they pose to the republic. And these tactics are endorsed, explicitly or implicitly, by the people at the pinnacle of power among the left. I’m not sure this is the result the left wanted from the “get Musk” campaign. I think it may even justify giving them a Nelson.
The terrorists, the legacy/mainstream media, and the DNC (but I repeat myself) would have accused him of misfeasance/malfeasance regardless of the messaging. If Musk had said, “My DOGE time is nearly up, and I set the program in motion, staffed by talented people with my full support. I now return to my day jobs of running Tesla and SpaceX and X,” they still would crucify him. A year ago, Tesla was the climate change savior. In April 2025, it is simply a ruse to cover for white racist nationalist fascism. I, for one, am giving Musk a pass on the messaging. He has demonstrated he is not governed by PR stunts and feel-good pleasantries.
jvb
Amen.
If and when Musk leaves Doge, will Musk’s employees leave as well or remain to push the same agenda?