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BREAKING: Elon Musk Leaves DOGE · Elon Musk Podcast

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  Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:02
  Podcast. This is part of the Stage Zero
• 0:05
  News Network. My name is Will Walden.
• 0:08
  I am your host. I want to tell you about
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  starshipshirts.com. Elon Musk inspired merch,
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  on the planet. starshipshirts.com.
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  Today's topic is Elon Musk leaving Doge.
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  He just got there, right? And so why is Donald Trump
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  suddenly treating Elon Musk more like a seasonal intern than the
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  most powerful man in Washington? It's not about Elon Musk getting
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  bored with a bureaucracy. The billionaire is going back to
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  his normal ways, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, Boring Company,
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  etcetera. It's about whether the most
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  disruptive figure in American tech history is finally becoming
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  too volatile for the most disruptive president in modern
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  history. What went wrong in this
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  bromance? And did Musk finally step on the
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  wrong policy landmine and trip over Tesla?
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  Now, according to three different individuals with
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  direct knowledge of internal discussions granted a nominee
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  because still, President Trump, it's Washington.
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  They don't want to get in trouble.
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  He's already told cabinet members and close advisors that
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  Elon Musk will be stepping back from his quasi government role
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  in the coming weeks. Not quite a resignation though.
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  He's just kind of stepping, stepping back.
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  More like a strategic phase out. Musk, once described by allies
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  as the administration's cheerleader in chief, is
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  expected to shift into a supportive role rather than
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  disappear entirely. This is a quiet divorce, and
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  it's been brewing for weeks, especially after Musk's latest
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  political misfire. Last Tuesday, a conservative
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  judge heavily backed by Musk lost a Wisconsin Supreme Court
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  race by double digits. The debacle didn't just stink
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  and rang alarm bells for Republicans banking on Musk's
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  influence to energize that base. Instead, he energized the other
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  side, the Democrats that came out in full force and destroyed
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  his side. Now, one month ago, Trump
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  staffers insisted that Musk was in it for the long haul.
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  The idea was that Trump might find a creative workaround for
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  the 130 daytime cap imposed on Musk's status as a special
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  government employee. But that's solved.
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  The legally mandated expiration of that role looms large in late
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  May or early June. Now, for the unfamiliar, special
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  government employee is Washington's bureaucratic
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  euphemism for a loophole, allowing Musk to temporarily
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  sidestep conflict of interest laws while moonlighting as
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  Trump's Mr. Fixit All. Now that special status is
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  expiring, and with it, Musk's front row seat to the US
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  government. Now Trump is said to have
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  started prepping for this transition over a week before
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  the Wisconsin election, even signaling the shift in a March
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  24th cabinet meeting. Now, the internal reasons are
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  both simple and very complex. Musk's supporters say he's done
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  what he can trim the fat from bloated agencies.
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  But a growing group of Trump loyalists argue he's created
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  more chaos than clarity. Musk's shoot from the hip
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  approach has tripped up the cabinet's communication flow,
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  made chief of Staff Susie Wiles job a walking nightmare, and
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  repeatedly blindsided departments with half baked
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  policy declarations posted on X. Now his defenders argue that
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  he's made an impact, especially with Doge, Trump's Frankenstein
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  attempt to downsize the federal workforce.
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  But Musk's adversaries are quick to note that Doge's surprise
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  mandates and unintended cuts, including the now infamous
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  incident involving Ebola prevention funding, had become
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  potential landmines. Now, even as Trump publicly
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  praises Musk, calling him a patriot and a friend of mine
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  during the same March Cabinet meeting, others inside the White
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  House see a man growing Berry of Musk's unfiltered methods.
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  Now, Musk once emailed a mass demand to federal employees
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  asking them to itemize their daily tasks.
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  That cabinet had no idea what he was doing.
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  They didn't know it was coming. And the strain intensified after
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  Musk funneled millions into that doomed judicial campaign in
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  Wisconsin. His opponents made the race
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  about him, and they won. Democrats, fractured as they
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  are, united in their opposition to Musk's billionaire meddling,
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  proving that his involvement is as likely to turn voters away as
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  to win them over. A week before Wisconsin lost,
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  Trump quietly began backing away from Musk.
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  This included retracting Representative Elise Stefanik's
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  nomination for UN ambassador Assigned Trump is trying to
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  protect his razor thin White House majority heading into
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  midterms. According to Trump campaign
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  insiders, Trump is becoming less amused with Elon Musk,
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  especially when they echo back directly to the president.
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  Now, when asked by Fox News whether he'd be ready to leave
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  after his 130 day gig expires, Musk gave a classic mic drop.
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  He said. I think we'll have accomplished
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  most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion
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  dollars within that time frame. OK, if he can get rid of a
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  trillion dollars in 130 days, imagine what Doge could do over
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  the course of Trump's four years in office.
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  I think they could find more money that they could get rid of
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  a trillion dollars within that time frame.
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  Maybe they could find more, I don't know.
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  We'll see. But the White House spokesperson
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  Harrison Fields tried to study the narrative and said Elon has
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  been instrumental in executing the president's agenda.
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  And we'll continue this good work until the president says
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  otherwise. The press secretary for Trump
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  went a step further, calling reports of Musk's departure
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  garbage, but still confirmed he's going to be gone when the
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  doge work is complete. Now no one is accusing Musk of
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  sabotaging the administration intentionally.
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  Even supporters say he has a frustrating inability to work
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  within structured systems. He makes his own rules.
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  I mean, he's from the billionaire class.
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  They just do whatever they want, right?
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  The most charitable read though. They just said he's not built
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  for team sports. OK, well, he has teams around
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  him all the time. He's in charge of everything.
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  He's the billionaire boss. So they do what he says.
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  He doesn't play with anybody else.
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  Now, as one senior ally put it though, they think he's a
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  genius, but he's a one man Wrecking Ball.
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  A Wrecking Ball that's starting to swing wildly close to Trump.
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  Among Musk's recent transgressions, though
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  torpedoing a year end budget deal between Speaker Mike
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  Johnson and Democrats. Without Trump's direction,
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  lawmakers assume Musk had Trump's blessing, throwing the
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  entire GOP in disarray. Another gem came when Musk
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  undermined a $500 billion AI partnership by lobbying insults
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  to Sam Altman, a long time rival and centerpiece of this deal.
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  Now, in both cases, White House staff were left scrambling to
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  control the damage. And while Trump publicly stayed
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  loyal, there were grumbles inside The West Wing.
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  People wondered if Musk was becoming a net negative.
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  Then there was Musk's cameo on Joe Rogan, where he casually
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  dismissed Social Security as the biggest Ponzi scheme of all
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  time. Now Trump has vowed repeatedly
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  to protect those benefits though Social Security.
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  Now, the timing was atrocious. Now, Musk also took to X urging
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  Trump to ignore court orders blocking parts of Doge just as
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  the administration was pledging constitutional compliance.
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  So you can't have it both ways, Elon.
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  And at some point, Trump aides stepped into Muslim.
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  But even when Musk reins himself in, there's still whiplash.
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  There's still lingering effects. Advisors say that Trump has
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  started to realize that while Musk has been a useful lightning
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  rod, taking heat for the nastier parts of Trump's agenda, sparks
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  are starting to catch fire. Elon's taking a lot of bullets
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  for Trump. A lot.
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  And Trump knows it. But if it starts to rub off on
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  him, that's when the honeymoon ends between Trump and Musk.
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  Now, Musk's peculiar proximity to Trump has long been a sore
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  spot for other insiders and people that have climbed the
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  ladder to get that close to Trump and nudged aside by Elon
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  Musk because he has billions of dollars.
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  And even before the 2024 election, critics within Trump's
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  circle grumbled that Musk was practically living at Mar a
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  Lago, seeking FaceTime with the president like a kid desperate
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  to meet Santa Claus. Now, many assume Musk wouldn't
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  want to disrupt his own businesses by entering
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  government. But they were wrong.
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  Instead, Musk became a fixture in the White House.
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  Given an office near The West Wing and unprecedented access to
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  the president, critics feared it gave Musk unchecked influence.
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  For a time, it did. But Trump has shown growing
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  skepticism. He grew a public line after it
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  emerged that the Pentagon had planned a brief Musk on
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  classified war scenarios involving China.
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  And with Musk's business ties in the region, even the hint of a
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  conflict of interest set off all the alarms.
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  Now, you shouldn't show it to a businessman, even Elon Musk, and
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  that's diplomatic code for we don't trust him with state
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  secrets. Trump also had to do clean up
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  after that fiasco. And reportedly the president was
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  pissed not just at the leak, but that he wasn't warned about the
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  Pentagon's intentions ahead of time.
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  It was another sign Musk was operating outside official
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  channels. He just does what he wants and
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  asks for forgiveness later, kind of like what they do in Silicon
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  Valley. I worked there for years.
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  I understand how it works. You just make stuff and if you
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  break something, you ask for forgiveness the way it works,
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  especially if you have as much money as Elon Musk does now.
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  The slow motion unraveling reached a climax during a March
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  6 Cabinet meeting. Trump made it clear, though
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  agency heads, not Elon Musk, were now in charge of budget
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  cuts. That announcement wasn't just
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  procedural. It was a power shift.
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  Trump reasserted control, signaling that Musk's
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  freewheeling influence was no longer untouchable.
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  Still, at the following week's meetings, Trump gave Musk a
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  glowing send off in front of the press.
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  For all the behind the scenes tension, he remains publicly
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  grateful for Musk's service, even if that gratitude comes
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  with a farewell. But the facts spark louder than
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  the flattery. Musk is exiting the daily
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  operation of Trump's administration not because he
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  failed at streamlining bureaucracy, but because he
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  failed at reading the political room.
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  Whether it was going rogue on budget deals, insulting AI
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  partners, or sparking Social Security panic, Musk has
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  revealed a basic incompatibility with the structure of government
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  work. He's not malicious, he's just
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  undisciplined. In this type of work, he doesn't
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  know how to do it. And in Donald Trump's world,
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  undisciplined can only last so long before it becomes
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  inconvenient. Now, thank you so much for
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  listening to the show today. If you could take a second and
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  hit the follow button or the like button on whatever podcast
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  platform that you're on right now, I'd greatly appreciate it.
• 11:31
  And my promise to you if you do that is that I'll continue this
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  show for the next 10 years uninterrupted with no pay walls.
• 11:40
  That's all you need to do. Hit the subscribe or follow
• 11:42
  button on whatever podcast platform you're on right now.
• 11:45
  That's it for the day. Everybody take care of
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  yourselves and each other. And I will see you in the next
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  one.