cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28539608

Speculation of Tesla CEO’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane

Elon Musk is reportedly set to leave his government role because he’s tired of the what he sees as a litany of vicious and unethical attacks from the left, according to a report from The Washington Post.

It remains unclear when Musk will depart as head of DOGE; his special government employee status will expire at the end of next month. A person familiar with his thinking told The Post that Musk thinks that his work at DOGE won’t be diminished because of his departure, noting that staffers have already established themselves across a slew of federal agencies.

But speculation of Musk’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane. The New York Times reported last week that the acting commissioner of the IRS was being replaced after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained that Musk had his preferred candidate installed without Bessent’s support. Musk has also annoyed other cabinet members by failing to coordinate with them in cost-cutting moves.

  • Charlxmagne@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    “X was right about everything” clothing is definitely not something a narcissistic egomaniac fascist dictator would sell or make his govt members wear.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        25 days ago

        Entered the kitchen, took some ketamine, shat his pants, took some LSD, set fire to the trash can, complained about the heat.

  • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works
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    25 days ago

    See? Bullying fascism works. It’s the only thing that works. Fascism is fought with violence (physical or otherwise) as it’s the only language that it understands.

    When an opponent doesn’t care about rules, playing by those rules only puts you at disadvantage.

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      When an opponent doesn’t care about rules, playing by those rules only puts you at disadvantage.

      I think the first step is to stop calling out disinformation when it’s against Drump and Co, let that shit ride

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      FINALLY!!! Someone who GETS IT!!!

      I said something similar in November, and had my comment removed, after being downvoted.

      Peaceful protests don’t work. Raging infernos do.

    • lemonaz@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      Bullying power in general as well. Progressives have been too soft on liberals too and always let them run the show. But the reality is it’s always harder to rally people when things seem to be going ok and the crisis is muffled rather than blatantly obvious. Kinda how we never go to the dentist when nothing hurts even though we really shouldn’t wait until it does. Anyway, hope something meaningful comes of this resistance because this fascist stage is still a stage of neoliberalism, like that’s where the root cause is.

      • MangoCats@feddit.it
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        25 days ago

        Kinda how we never go to the dentist when nothing hurts even though we really shouldn’t wait until it does

        Now I find that this all depends on the character of your dentist…

        Regular visits to many dentists I have known in my life result in un-necessary procedures, additional pain and lower quality of life in general as compared to if you had just stayed the hell away and taken decent care of your own teeth at home. Yes, this is unethical, but in my life experience 9/10 dentists I have visited are unethical and do push any procedure they think they can sell you, particularly if the procedure is covered by your insurance.

        If we could get a “real” dentist rating system going where you could judge them before experiencing the high-pressure sales pitch from authority while you are in the chair under the light, we might make some positive progress. Good dental practices are good for the patients. Un-necessary deep scale cleanings, recession reconstructions, drill and fill of not-really cavities and so many other things have given dentists in general a bad reputation IMO.

        • lemonaz@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          You’re right but I wasn’t going for a “dentist = political party” analogy. More like a “get your teeth taken care of = keep power in check through public pressure” analogy (to be clear, only voting doesn’t count as pressure) .

          • MangoCats@feddit.it
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            25 days ago

            I keep hoping that this cycle will be the one that demonstrates that we need real transparency, real accountability, and real limits of power to screw around in the name of “national emergency.”

            Of course, when half the people who vote vote for lunacy, lunacy is what you get.

      • insufferableninja@sh.itjust.works
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        25 days ago

        I know it’s not your point, but you really should go to the dentist regularly, not just when something hurts. Take care of your teeth and they’ll take care of you!

        • lemonaz@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          It’s definitely my point! That’s exactly why I used that analogy :)

          We should tend to our teeth, our environment and our political environment as well — and they will, as you say, take care of us. The “cavities” in American politics started waaaay before Trump. Trump is when they reached the nerve. (I hope I said that correctly, ESL here.)

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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      25 days ago

      We did have a little part in this, but otoh he’s been playing that game for years on his platform, I don’t think it is what drove him out. Him blaming the Left is just - well, it’s what he would do isn’t it?

      But now, even MAGA is against him. DOGE is such a blatant fuck-up on all levels, he probably doesn’t even want to do that anymore. It won’t bring his stock back up.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        25 days ago

        No, they aren’t. Just the other day I saw idiots on Facebook calling for DOGE to come investigate our (Democrat led) county. They think he’s doing great work saving them money.

        As I said, idiots.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        Yeah. We can assume he gave himself an insane amount of extra cash through his access (like the surprising-wink-wink gov contracts his companies have now), but we don’t know truly know how much and he’d be stupid to let anybody know.

        He has to get the fuck out now though because obviously him gaining a few more billions cost the american state + public hundreds of billions in long-term damage, if not trillions. It also made swaths of the american government dysfunctional, things like veteran aid etc.

  • jojop@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    The bully doesn’t like being bullied, poor baby Mukus 😢

  • WasteWizard@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    No, he just wants back into the background and do shady things in obscurity again. We all know the rich can’t and won’t stop meddling.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      25 days ago

      Exactly. There’s no way he would leave, there’s too much power.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      This is what people don’t get.

      This is just double-win: He gets to once again shit on anybody even marginally less fascist that him (so, well, everybody) for the right-wing mass media, while simultaneously withdrawing from the public eye to have less people look at how he’s draining money from the US gov.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      His ego won’t let him do that.
      If he’s not the center of attention for more than a few days he does something stupid or outrageous to get the cameras pointing at him again.
      This is just the latest example of that. Everyone’s been talking about Hegseth and the Pope so it’s the perfect time for him to play “victim” and talk about how the “evil left” is making him feel bad with their words.

  • ZeroCool@lemmy.ca
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    25 days ago

    The reality is, Elon Musk is considered a “special government employee” and can only legally work for 130 days a year. He’s leaving regardless. He’s just trying to frame this as something he’s being “forced out of” for political reasons rather than the truth… that it’s just how it works. And this is one of the few times Trump isn’t willing to ignore the law for whatever reason.

    Trump isn’t fighting to give him an exemption… Elon’s mad about it and trying to spin the situation… Which should be telling on it’s own… Source

    Same old clowns, same old circus.

  • orcrist@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    We all know Musk is lying. He doesn’t plan on leaving. There’s too much power.

    What’s kind of amazing is that so many articles don’t point this out in the title or the first sentence. I really wonder why. When you know the person is a liar and they are in a situation like this, with a strong motive to lie, why in heck would you not make that the subject line?

    Or, if you want to be polite about it, you could write a headline that says something like “Musk supposedly considering retiring, but actions speak louder than words”.

    • HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      When it comes to Elon and Trump, what I assume is:

      Whenever they say they are going to do something bad, it is the truth.

      Whenever they say they are going to do something good, it is a lie.

    • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      Sadly that would open them up to accusations of libel/slander. (I’m not a lawyer)

      I guess we’ll just have to think for ourselves