MARCH 3, 2025
Elon Musk walks on stage during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 20. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images© SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
What do you do when you—the richest man in the world—have around $400 billion to play with and you’re being hassled with health, safety, and ethics regulations? You buy the guy who runs the regulatory system of course—then you dismantle every part of it that ever annoyed you.
Elon Musk has done just that by buying himself President Donald Trump. You can imagine Musk channeling his inner Doctor Evil while he made nearly $300 million of payments for Trump’s political benefit and then $10 million in bogus lawsuit settlement money for Trump’s personal benefit.
Now we can watch Musk laughing while he takes his chainsaw to the government as a whole—which conveniently includes those responsible for regulating his companies and overseeing the over $20 billion of contracts the country has had with his entities.
Watch the bouncing coin drop on one Musk investigation after another—like the ball in some old-fashioned cartoon sing-a-long.
The coin—the ball— began bouncing on Musk’s problems nearly his first day as a “special government employee.” Remember that weekend Musk spent feeding USAID into the woodchipper? Why start with USAID? One undeniable effect of it was to shut down an agency that was mounting an investigation into its relationship with Musk’s Starlink. One down.
Next, on February 20, 2025, the Justice Department indicated it would drop a discrimination lawsuit against Musk company, SpaceX. This coincided with the administration firing two commissioners and the top lawyer in the agency responsible for the suits.
Make no mistake. That ball still has a long way to bounce. Take notes. If you’re wondering whether Musk has a conflict of interest in having power second only—maybe second—to the president, watch what happens to the following investigations. Maybe Musk will be brazen and directly involve himself. Maybe these things will die or just whither on the vine. But pay attention. These investigations of the guy with the gazillions are going to be gone.
Soon to be bounced out the window:
- Nearly 300 complaints against Tesla by the early Musk targeted Consumer Finance Protection Bureau whose home page now shows a picture of a plug removed from its socket with the words “Page Not Found” next to it.
- Investigations into fatal Tesla crashes by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A few months ago, there were three investigations pending.
So long soon!
- The Federal Aviation Administration ordered an investigation of SpaceX’s exploding rocket that rained debris and damaged property while diverting and delaying air travelers. SpaceX’s Starship was grounded. Not for long.
- A federal lawsuit by early Musk target the Securities and Exchange Commission for an alleged $150 million rip off of Twitter shareholders. The head of this once- independent agency quit before Trump could fire him.
- Ethics complaints by Democrats in Congress against Musk for violating federal conflict of interest laws along with a 12-point list of Musk’s problematic governmental entanglements assembled by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
It’s a federal crime punishable by fine or imprisonment for a government employee to use their office to benefit themselves. But who will do anything about Musk? With Musk’s help, Trump gutted the senior ranks of the Justice Department and the FBI. Yes, Musk must file a confidential financial disclosure form with the Office of Government Ethics, but if you think it’s going to get serious scrutiny there, think again. They just fired the agency’s chief. In the end, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to no specific safeguards against Musk conflicts, saying only that the administration was leaving it to Muskhimself to decide when he has a conflict of interest.
And so, it will go. But what won’t go are the billions flowing from U.S. taxpayers to Elon Musk. What also won’t go until he does, are the riches he has gained by appearing to run the U.S. government. Investors made him $20 billion richer the day after the election and they kept rewarding him. That roughly $400 billion of wealth didn’t come out of nowhere. Fifty percent of it was created since the 2024 election. So, keep an eye on those investigations. Musk probably won’t have to lift a finger to get rid of them. No one will dare to pursue them.
Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. He is the author of the new book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.
Courtesy/Source: Newsweek
