{"id":14687,"date":"2025-03-22T09:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T09:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/how-elon-musk-is-reshaping-politics\/"},"modified":"2025-03-22T09:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T09:57:10","slug":"how-elon-musk-is-reshaping-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/how-elon-musk-is-reshaping-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"How Elon Musk is Reshaping Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"css-8hvvyd\">He\u2019s one of the most powerful and polarizing figures in American politics, wielding influence over media, technology and every corner of the federal government. \u201cYes!\u201d In just a few short weeks since the inauguration, Elon Musk has taken a sledgehammer to the federal workforce and injected his companies into the center of the White House. He\u2019s pushed legal boundaries and become one of the biggest donors in Republican politics, pouring his money into races across the country. And now his influence may be extending to one of the most influential and consequential departments in Washington, the Pentagon. The Musk effect is everywhere. But what does it mean? And what\u2019s in it for Donald Trump? We\u2019re going to discuss all of this today on our political roundtable. \u201cSo welcome, everybody \u2014 Zolan, Jess, Teddy. So we are just about 60 days into this Trump administration, which means we are just about 60 days into one of the most extraordinary governing partnerships, I think, the country has ever seen. I am, of course, talking about Elon Musk. This was quite a week in the annals of Elon Musk. He got a slap back from a court saying that his shuttering of U.S.A.I.D. violated the Constitution. But he\u2019s also pouring money into all different levels of Republican politics. He\u2019s calling for federal judges to be impeached. We\u2019re going to talk about all of it. Zolan, I am going to start with you. You are one of our ace, very, very busy, White House reporters. Well, we\u2019re very grateful to have you. Musk is a White House adviser. He\u2019s one of the Republican Party\u2019s biggest donors. He\u2019s heading up one of Trump\u2019s most prominent initiatives. I had our audience people pull this, which may be one part horrifying, one part gratifying to you. We\u2019ve run 700 headlines about Musk since the inauguration.\u201d \u201cAbout, like, 500 of them Teddy does.\u201d \u201c7,000 headlines, right?\u201d \u201c7,000 of them, right? I think you\u2019ve done some, too. But there are plenty of signs he\u2019s ruffled feathers within the White House, outside of the White House. How much power does he really have right now? What is the dynamic?\u201d \u201cAn enormous amount of power, right? I mean, yes, it\u2019s \u2014 the title of adviser is accurate. But I \u2014 this is not a normal situation between a president and an adviser or a staffer in the White House. You have the world\u2019s richest man side by side with the president of the United States. And to this point, based \u2014 when I talked to White House officials, when I talk to Republicans and allies of the president, there\u2019s a through line here. The president and the White House view Elon Musk almost as an effective means to the end. This is somebody who is helping driving his progress on some of the \u2014 on some of his primary goals. That goes back to the campaign. You have a record amount of donations in the presidential campaign towards Trump. Trump made clear that he wanted to upend federal bureaucracy. Look at the agency that Elon Musk is currently leading in that effort. You have, pretty much, Trump trying to consolidate power in the executive branch at this time. That lawsuit that you mentioned \u2014 yes, it blocked Elon Musk when it came to U.S.A.I.D. I also thought it was interesting in the lead of our story that court order basically said that in Elon\u2019s pursuit of stripping down U.S.A.I.D., they had robbed authority from Congress. Trump is basically, in a way, bringing all this power in the executive branch with the help of Elon Musk. There\u2019s been some things that have frustrated some officials and ruffled feathers. But at this point \u2014 and I do still think the president likes having the world\u2019s richest man by his side, even if he\u2019s standing over his cabinet, not dressed in a suit, seemingly with a growing amount of influence here.\u201d \u201cBut this is part of what I don\u2019t get. Trump is a guy who we know loves putting his name on things. He loves putting his name on buildings, on stimulus checks. He loves getting credit for accomplishing things. And Musk is accomplishing things. Whether people like it or not, he is. So why do you all think Trump is allowing this \u2014 the world\u2019s richest man to, at some point, almost appear to overshine him, even in the Oval Office?\u201d \u201cTrump loves a convert. When you think about the people who are around him right now \u2014 JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Elon Musk \u2014 these are all people who have, at one time, been pretty serious critics of Trump and have now come around into the fold. In some ways, it\u2019s a way of really displaying his power. And I think another piece of it, and I bet Teddy can speak to this, as well, is that Trump was deeply flattered that Elon Musk wanted to come and work with him, wanted to be part of his government. And I think he\u2019s deeply flattered that he\u2019s sticking with him. And so because of that \u2014 Zolan talked about how he\u2019s a means to an end for doing these cuts. But Trump has, by the same token, I think, really become one of Musk\u2019s biggest defenders.\u201d \u201cI think he\u2019s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people. And I just want people to know that you can\u2019t be penalized for being a patriot. And he\u2019s a great patriot.\u201d \u201cI also wonder if there\u2019s a heat shield element. When you talk to Democrats, they see Musk as \u2014 I have Democrats \u2014 top Democrats are so eager to talk to me about Musk. If I mention that\u2019s what I want to talk about, everybody\u2019s calling back. So I wonder if there\u2019s a little bit of a political heat shield going on, where the president sees Musk as someone that can take some of the political incoming and, if necessary, he can sever the relationship and have Musk take the political heat. But that brings me to my next question about this really fascinating relationship for you, Teddy \u2014\u201d \u201cSure.\u201d \u201c\u2014 which is, why is \u2014 what does Musk get out of this? He\u2019s losing what? He lost something like $120 billion since the administration began. There\u2019s Tesla riots. One of my favorite headlines was that the Vancouver Auto Show yesterday said, No, we\u2019re not showing Teslas because it\u2019s too politically incendiary. This has not been great for his business interests \u2014 or has it? And what does he get out of this whole thing?\u201d \u201cI think he\u2019s been consistently very driven by relevance. And he is more relevant than ever. Ten years ago, when I was graduating college, we considered inviting Elon Musk \u2014\u201d \u201cIs that a little age \u2014 are you doing an age flex?\u201d \u201cLast year, when I graduated college, we considered inviting Elon Musk to be our commencement speaker. And we decided against it because we thought not enough people knew who he was.\u201d \u201cReally?\u201d \u201cYeah, 2014.\u201d \u201cWow.\u201d \u201cAnd now, that\u2019s obviously preposterous. But he\u2019s inescapable in the culture. If you thought he was inescapable in the culture two years ago, when he bought Twitter, I think Musk is loving the fact that we\u2019re talking about him right now. And he is everywhere. And that, I think, is what drives him \u2014 is his ego and the fact that he has us kind of enraptured. And I think Elon Musk, based on people I talk to, is just plainly having fun \u2014 he is, obviously, he\u2019s enjoying the power. He doesn\u2019t have to go on \u2018Hannity,\u2019 like he did the other night. He is having an experience that he can write home about. But he also, I get the sense, is reveling in the attention he is getting offline.\u201d \u201cThe relevance is across the globe, too. It\u2019s not just in Washington. We\u2019ve seen him weigh into these different elections in Europe and what have you. And I did mention that, from the reporting, Trump still likes this dynamic. But I do think we\u2019ve also had signs that that doesn\u2019t mean that all of his cabinet officials do as well. And there was a cabinet meeting where Elon Musk was pressing Marco Rubio on the progress here and some of these layoffs that we\u2019ve seen and trying to trim down the federal bureaucracy. And the tensions definitely came to the surface there. And that is something I don\u2019t think Trump likes, the appearance that someone from the outside is now \u2014 honestly, or that any tension with somebody from the outside would result in any negative headlines about the administration.\u201d \u201cSo Musk and DOGE have caused all kinds of reverberations in Washington and, really, around the globe. But this isn\u2019t a total surprise. There was a case that was built for this work during the campaign. And there\u2019s voters who wanted this. What is the case that DOGE is making and Musk is making for their own work?\u201d \u201cTrump \u2014 when he was campaigning, he did not specifically say, I am going to put Elon Musk in charge of this initiative. He\u2019ll be a special adviser, et cetera. He never said that exactly. But he did campaign against the idea of the deep state. He did campaign on the idea of shrinking the federal government. He never exactly said how he would do that. And we\u2019re seeing that now. But I think he hit on something that is a belief that is shared somewhat widely among American voters. And that is that the government spends too much money.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s so interesting. In the polling, when you ask people about DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, it\u2019s popular. When you ask people about Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE, it\u2019s not popular. So it is interesting how much coupling the initiative with his persona will cost it popularity. But I do think you\u2019re right. People generally don\u2019t like government. But they also generally don\u2019t always understand what it is government is doing for them.\u201d \u201cRight, right. Absolutely. And I think on the specifics, too, the more specific you get when you talk about cuts, oftentimes the less popular they become. And this is a long-held Republican belief, that the government is bloated and \u2014\u201d \u201cSpends too much.\u201d \u201c\u2014 spends too much. And it\u2019s something that certainly Trump talks about, even as he has himself grown government spending and grown the deficit. There\u2019s a little bit of irony there. But it\u2019s something that he certainly wants less regulation, more efficiency, all the standard Republican Party.\u201d \u201cAll things, to your point, that he also forecasted during the campaign, too, and should have been expected, in a way. I think it\u2019s true that part of the message, and one that many voters and his supporters probably agree with, is that the federal bureaucracy does need to change, that it could be cut down, that it is too bureaucratic. I do think it\u2019s also true, and two things can be true at the same time, that this effort to upend, really, the federal bureaucracy and \u2014 is also about \u2014 it\u2019s also helping Trump achieve a goal of ridding the federal government of dissent. The Trump administration \u2014 President Trump feels that his first-term agenda, in many cases, hit roadblocks because career officials who he would call part of the deep state, but federal employees who felt they were looking at the law, stopped his agenda at times and slow-rolled it. And in this case, now you have somebody who is, many in the White House would say, effectively trimming down government. What comes with that is also a lot of those career officials that you felt stopped your agenda are now getting put on leave.\u201d \u201cThis great little fact that someone slipped Jess and I from internal Democratic polling when we did the story about politics and Musk \u2014 what was that \u2014 I don\u2019t know. What is time?\u201d \u201cA couple weeks ago.\u201d \u201cTwo weeks ago \u2014 is that his name identification is 10 points higher than JD Vance, the vice president. It\u2019s unbelievable. So more people \u2014\u201d \u201c7,000 headlines help.\u201d \u201cI know. Your 7,000 headlines have probably helped. But I also \u2014 I was talking to a Democrat this week who\u2019s known Musk for quite a while tangentially. And this person was arguing to me that there\u2019s also a philosophical thing going on here for him. It\u2019s not just relevance. But he has this larger view of how bureaucracy has hampered what he sees as innovation and getting humanity to Mars and all these things. And I was wondering \u2014 I know you\u2019ve thought about this a little bit, Jess \u2014 if you think there\u2019s any truth to that. Is there a larger vision here, or is it just wanting to be Teddy\u2019s commencement speaker?\u201d \u201cSomeday.\u201d \u201cUnfortunately, it already happened.\u201d \u201cI see it as a mix of things. He has beliefs about technology that are pretty unusual, pretty different. And those have gotten him into some hot water with other allies of Trump. His Neuralink company \u2014 they are implanting chips in people\u2019s brains. He\u2019s talked about how he thinks that that\u2019s going to be a key piece of helping humanity keep up with A.I. This is the kind of thing that some people around Trump, including Steve Bannon, really don\u2019t like, his transhumanism. It\u2019s caused big tensions. So there\u2019s a piece of his belief system that I do think makes people around him, around Trump, in the world of Washington Republicans uncomfortable. It\u2019s really new. It\u2019s really different. And they don\u2019t quite know what to make of it. He talks at length about the deficit, about government waste, about saying \u2014 he describes his project in cutting government waste as being existential. One thing he does not bring up when he talks about that is the billions of dollars that have flowed to his companies.\u201d \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cAnd when we talk about his business interests, yes, we are seeing Tesla\u2019s stock fall. We are seeing Tesla\u2019s sales fall. We\u2019re seeing that company hit some rough waters. But others of his companies do really well with government contracts. And I think even when we think about electric vehicles, it\u2019s important to remember that as much as Tesla might be suffering right now, his competitors in that space, those other electric car companies \u2014 they stand to lose more from tariffs. They stand to lose more from subsidies. So his competitors stand to lose a lot from this administration, even if Tesla is hitting bumpy waters.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m glad you brought that up because the contracts are a piece of this. And some of those 7,000 headlines have been about the various contracts that his companies have gained or stand to gain. What do we know about that? I don\u2019t know that we can quantify it. But how beneficial has this administration, the early days of this administration, been for Elon Musk\u2018s business interests?\u201d \u201cWe can all take a stab at this. To some extent, it\u2019s hard to know because we\u2019re just starting out here. It\u2019s mid-March. But there\u2019s also \u2014 there\u2019s been tons of investigations that have been coming from the alphabet soup of federal agencies into Tesla, into SpaceX, into X for a while now. And the status of all those investigations is, obviously, under \u2014 is not clear. Also, several of the people that have been leading those investigations have since lost their jobs. So you can do one plus one there. And on the contracts point, yes, SpaceX and Tesla would have gotten federal contracts under a President Harris, got contracts under Biden and Obama, Democrats.\u201d \u201cAnd actually, it was Obama who helped kick off the whole electric car business for Musk.\u201d \u201cRight. Sure. What\u2019s interesting to me, though, is also how Musk seems to try to capitalize not just on the direct economic impact of Trump being in office, but also indirectly, Twitter, or now X, is, at least according to their latest financials \u2014 seems to be approaching a valuation that they enjoyed when Musk bought the company in 2022, in part because there\u2019s a lot of pressure from corporate America to get on board with Elon Musk. And if you\u2019re an advertiser who wants to appeal to a conservative audience, or at least have the perception in Trump world that you are not woke and don\u2019t retract our funding for whatever, Elon Musk is an avenue and Elon Musk companies are an avenue to getting in good with the Trump administration. So there\u2019s not only the direct economic benefits of here\u2019s an investigation we\u2019re going to close or here\u2019s a subsidy we\u2019re going to offer you, there\u2019s also just getting in good with the first buddy that Elon is taking advantage of.\u201d \u201cIt bears repeating, too, again, that the agencies that had investigations underway into these companies \u2014 many of them have been impacted by these DOGE cuts. There is a transparency issue here, too. The administration has given Elon Musk this special designation in a way, which, in layman\u2019s terms, means that we don\u2019t have all of his financial disclosure forms at this point as well. That\u2019s also an issue, particularly when we\u2019re talking about somebody that oversees these companies that have direct business with the administration that he\u2019s currently gutting. So we actually \u2014 it\u2019s \u2014 we don\u2019t know, is the answer. We don\u2019t know.\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t know all the answers.\u201d \u201cWe can\u2019t figure out how much money this is making for him. We can\u2019t do the calculation, the \u2014 how much he\u2019s losing versus how much he\u2019s making because there\u2019s no disclosure.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s right. That\u2019s right. That\u2019s right, which makes some of the reporting, the ongoing reporting, challenging, but even more important.\u201d \u201cBut we do know that he\u2019s getting the kind of publicity that \u2014 the saying is you couldn\u2019t pay for. You have the president selling your cars on the White House lawn. But in fact, he may be paying for it because he is now the biggest donors to the Republican politics. And you had a couple of stories this week, and I know you\u2019re working on other ones, about where that money is going. And I was wondering if you could talk about a little \u2014 that, and also why this interest. He was never a huge political donor before until fairly recently. So why this interest now?\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s pretty impulsive. That\u2019s an understatement. And so this is not somebody who, I think, is really operating like Trump, with a long-term strategic view. I think he thinks he\u2019s giving $100 million, as we reported, to Trump-aligned political organizations not because he\u2019s thinking about the 2026 midterms or 2028 presidential election, but just because it helps him in that particular moment, where it helps him maybe after the cabinet meeting that Zolan mentioned. And he\u2019s donating money right now, as we reported, to Republicans who are supporting his push for impeachment of federal judges not because he thinks that Lauren Boebert needs to win in 2026 or because it\u2019s really that helpful down the line, but because he wants to send a message right now that this is an important push for me, and I\u2019ll reward you financially. So he\u2019s going based on moment-to-moment vibes. And lots of people do that.\u201d \u201cThis is fascinating, though, because I said before the end \u2014 of the means to an end thing. And we talked about the agenda and the federal bureaucracy. What you\u2019re talking about, donating to Republicans that are also threatening impeachment against a federal judge, by the way, that just issued a temporary block on these deportation flights that the Trump administration thinks is pivotal to its immigration agenda \u2014 now you\u2019re talking about also helping Trump in terms of pressuring the judicial branch, as well, not just a matter of policies, not just federal bureaucracy, but also, more broadly, again, pressuring the judicial branch that, at this point, is trying to establish a guardrail on this administration and its executive power.\u201d \u201cI think for those of us who cover politics, which is basically everyone at this table, this is beyond the bounds of \u2014 we normally think of as political activity. Typically, it\u2019s Democrats versus Republicans, elections, Congress, the White House. It is not the judicial branch. And that\u2019s a really important point. It\u2019s also interesting to me how Republicans are responding to all of this. And I was struck by \u2014 Murkowski commented this week that she thinks her fellow Republicans are afraid.\u201d \u201cAnd I\u2019m not going to compromise my own integrity by hiding from my words when they \u2014 when I feel they need to be spoken. It may be that Elon Musk has decided he\u2019s going to take the next billion dollars that he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against Lisa Murkowski. And you know what? That may happen.\u201d \u201cYou were on Capitol Hill a week or two ago, talking to Republicans. And they did offer some criticism. It was tempered. It was criticism that you would never even register as criticism from Republicans previously \u2014 now sounds like a bomb exploding in this era of fealty to the president in that party. But how do you think the Republicans are responding to Musk, both publicly and privately? And I suspect they\u2019re different.\u201d \u201cThey are. They are. And it\u2019s a really interesting situation. I was on Capitol Hill a couple of weeks ago, when Musk was going to a Senate luncheon with Republicans. And in a way, this was an amusing situation. You think about this guy who \u2014 he wants to colonize Mars. He is the richest man in the world. And he is stuck at a Senate luncheon in a little room on Capitol Hill for two hours while Senate Republicans ask him question after question after question. And it\u2019s moments like that that make me wonder if he might be learning a little bit about how being in government is really not that glamorous and you have to do a little bit of constituent management the same way that a Republican lawmaker has to. Musk was doing that. And so as lawmakers, these lunches are private. They do not allow us in. They certainly do not invite us in. And so we stand there, also in a very glamorous way, outside of the door, just waiting for people to start coming out and ask them.\u201d \u201cAnd then we rush them.\u201d \u201cWhat happened in there? And I was with colleagues on Capitol Hill. We positioned ourselves in different places so Robert Jemison could grab somebody and Catie Edmondson could grab someone else and I could be down by the elevator, get any stragglers. And so, anyway, what we started to hear from lawmakers that day was an undertone of discomfort. They were asking him questions like, \u2018How do we communicate what you guys are doing? Help us help you.\u2019\u201d \u201cBasically, sell this to our voters?\u201d \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cHelp us sell this.\u201d \u201cHelp us sell this to our voters. And they wanted to know, if we have a problem, how do we contact DOGE? And I think in a sign that Musk realized he needed to do a little more to make Republicans happy, he handed out his phone number like he was a local lawmaker running for office, trying to pick up votes. But that\u2019s created an interesting situation on Capitol Hill, certainly, which is that now Republicans have a pretty direct line to DOGE, a direct line to him. And we have seen some Republican lawmakers say \u2014 I have Tom Cole as an example here \u2014 say: \u2018In my community, we\u2019ve saved a National Weather Service station. We\u2019ve saved a couple of other things. DOGE will not be cutting these institutions.\u2019 Democrats, though, don\u2019t have that same line of communication to DOGE. And that\u2019s something \u2014\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s going to his voters and selling the fact, don\u2019t worry, I stopped this administration from undermining \u2014 you can see I\u2019m animated there just because that, to me, seems like a striking message to tell your voters. Don\u2019t worry. This administration I\u2019m allied with \u2014 I stopped them from cutting this agency that would lose a bunch of jobs.\u201d \u201cTotally. And that\u2019s because we know that and these Republican senators know that jobs getting cut in their home states is bad politics. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a super red state, told me that very bluntly, very openly, and said, there \u2014 we know there\u2019s political risk here. But she also said that she\u2019s committed to the mission of DOGE of cutting government spending. And she\u2019s going to ride it.\u201d \u201cAnd you know who else thinks that\u2019s very bad politics? Democrats \u2014 great politics for them, bad politics for Republicans. And we spend a lot of time talking about how disorganized the Democrats are. They don\u2019t have a message. If there is one thing they\u2019re unified around, it is attacking Elon Musk.\u201d \u201c\u2014 thing on my phone. I don\u2019t know. Some of you know this on the iPhone. They\u2019ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day.\u201d \u201c$225 and dropping.\u201d \u201cAnd that\u2019s another thing you saw firsthand this week \u2014\u201d \u201cYes. Yes, absolutely. \u2014 in Wisconsin.\u201d \u201cYes. Yes. I am fresh off the plane back from Wisconsin, where I was in Eau Claire earlier this week for a town hall where Governor Walz was going to rev up Democrats for this State Supreme Court race. It\u2019s on April 1. And Musk has, through groups that he backs, poured a lot of money into this one State Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. So I wanted to hear what that sounded like. And one of my first observations when I got there was the very first person to go on stage \u2014 it was \u2014 we did not hear about the candidates running for the State Supreme Court seat. We did not hear about the name President Trump before we heard the name Elon Musk. That\u2019s how much of a focus Democrats have made this in this race. They are literally framing the race as the people versus Musk. So I think this race is going to be a real early test of, first, what does his money do in a local \u2014 or in a statewide race? And I know that\u2019s something that Teddy can speak to. And second, how well does this strategy work for Democrats? Can you nationalize a race by talking about Elon Musk? Is it going to rev up voters and get people out there in a race when people don\u2019t know that much about the candidates that are actually running? There\u2019s polling that shows that. But they sure know who Elon Musk is.\u201d \u201cElon Musk won the state of Wisconsin, not single-handedly, but for Trump six \u2014 less than six months ago, when his super PAC spent tens of millions of dollars in the state. But this is a race where Musk is much more proven. It\u2019s not his first time doing this. It\u2019s his second time doing this. But he is the main character in that race.\u201d \u201cJust as he likes it.\u201d \u201cExactly. I\u2019m sure \u2014 he has not been to Wisconsin. It would not shock me if he went at some point over the next two weeks. He has two groups that have spent over $10 million to try to help Republican or the conservative candidate win there. And the impression I get is that this is a playbook he\u2019s going to repeat again and again with these people who are supporting impeachment procedures against federal judges. Those are Musk allies. Is Musk going to put in $500 gazillion into their super PACs and keep on running this playbook that he\u2019s run a couple of times now? So we\u2019re just getting started.\u201d \u201cDo you think the White House is prepared for this political backlash, or they don\u2019t care, or how are they viewing this?\u201d \u201cYou mentioned heat shield earlier. And that, I still think, is the state of affairs here when you talk about Trump and the White House. I think he is OK having Elon, like you said, the Democratic attack line, the one \u2014 when they have chosen to swing, it\u2019s really been on Elon at this point. And that\u2019s advantageous to some folks around Trump. The question is how this works a little bit more broadly in his administration, as you \u2014 we did see in recent weeks the frustration when he had \u2014 when he was going at Marco Rubio. And you saw that frustration there from the leader of the State Department. So more broadly, as we get deeper into the administration, do you start to see more tension with cabinet officials? Does that make its way up? That\u2019s something we should watch, too. But at this point, I think that it\u2019s still thought to be advantageous to have him there.\u201d \u201cI know everybody has to get back to writing their next 7,000 stories. So why don\u2019t we end by just everyone tell me one thing you learned this week that might surprise \u2014 surprised you, might surprise our readers?\u201d \u201cWell, I can tell you about one thing I did not learn this week.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s also good.\u201d \u201cI can tell you a lot of things I did not learn.\u201d \u201cI have a long list of those, too.\u201d \u201cBut it was something I learned, and also something I did not learn. I write this newsletter about Elon Musk and the changes he\u2019s making to government. And for what I thought was going to be a really easy line in a story, I was looking up, oh, what\u2019s the total number of government jobs that DOGE has cut? And then I realized that actually finding a really precise figure is very, very difficult. It struck me that DOGE, an outfit that has talked a lot about its transparency \u2014 they said they put \u2014 they say they put everything up on their wall of receipts. They have not been tracking the number of jobs cut and people laid off in any central way. We have colleagues around the newsroom who have been working to track this number down. And we\u2019ve been able to see different pieces of it. But not every agency responds to our queries. Some people are laid off and then rehired, and then they immediately get put on administrative leave. It\u2019s literally a moving target. And I think the lack of clarity around this figure of true, true, precise clarity around this figure \u2014 it really speaks to the chaos of the way this process is unfolding.\u201d \u201cI got something.\u201d \u201cThat you learned or didn\u2019t learn?\u201d \u201cThat we learned.\u201d \u201cOh, good.\u201d \u201cI thought that was very interesting.\u201d \u201cSure. Since I covered the Elon social circle and that\u2019s my focus nowadays, I\u2019m very interested in the people who are not Elon Musk who are coming with him on the ride. So we published a story that was a profile of this guy named Steve Davis, who you could argue is maybe, after Trump and Elon Musk \u2014 maybe the third most powerful person in Washington. He is basically the guy running DOGE day to day. And he\u2019s never really photographed, never really talked about. I don\u2019t believe Trump or Elon have ever uttered his name since coming to Washington. But Davis is basically the guy who\u2019s making all the cuts, who is the intermediary between the White House and DOGE. And his official position is not even totally clear. I\u2019m saying he basically runs DOGE. But he\u2019s not the administrator of DOGE because that\u2019s somebody else. And I thought it was a good look at who really runs things, and also just the Musk friends who are basically calling the shots because this is a guy who\u2019s been with Elon Musk for 20 years who is, arguably, the third most person \u2014 important person in D.C. right now.\u201d \u201cThe detail I loved in that story \u2014 it was an excellent story \u2014 was that his \u2014 he moved with his partner and their newborn baby and lived in the Twitter offices.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of details we cut from that.\u201d \u201cBut was there \u2014 I have a lot of questions \u2014\u201d \u201cSure, sure, sure.\u201d \u201c\u2014 that we can discuss at a later point in time about the logistics of having a newborn live in the offices of Twitter.\u201d \u201cJust something where I \u2014 so I had no idea that this would pertain to our jobs in particular. Part of our job as White House reporters is to go to the briefing room and ask questions of the White House press secretary and other administration officials and often will sign on to Wi-Fi in order to do that. Sometimes, I\u2019ll bring my hotspot because the Wi-Fi in the room is a little bit iffy. And the other day, my colleague was in the briefing room. And he saw that Starlink was one of the Wi-Fi networks in the White House. But Starlink is, obviously, Elon Musk\u2019s initiative with satellites across \u2014 or around the world, providing internet service. This has also been pivotal in conflicts like in Ukraine, where he\u2019s providing Starlink satellites. I did not realize that Starlink was now providing internet not just across the United States, but including for the White House. I also did not realize that in order to do this, apparently, a DOGE employee went to the rooftop of a building adjacent to the White House and had an encounter with a Secret Service agent who was wondering, Who are you? And why are you on top of this building right now?\u201d \u201cWait. And that person installed the \u2014\u201d \u201cHe was attempting to go and, basically, try to install \u2014 or see the internet connection of the White House in the pursuit of this. And a Secret Service agent \u2014\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re engineers, a lot of them?\u201d \u201cSure.\u201d \u201cI couldn\u2019t see what the internet \u2014 if I went to the top of the building, I would not know.\u201d \u201cOh, you\u2019re asking the wrong person for the ins and out of the technology.\u201d \u201cBut just the \u2014 that feels like some \u2014 yes.\u201d \u201cAnd even the Secret Service was surprised to see this person there. I think that we are talking about somebody that is doing work that has an impact not only across the world and is impacting human lives across the world, and life-saving programs in some instances, but also is now becoming an incredibly central and influential figure in Washington, from his own technology and his own companies surrounding the actual building of the White House to also him standing in a cabinet meeting and pressing some of Trump\u2019s top cabinet officials as well. I think it shows the range of his influence.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s literally inserting his business into the White House.\u201d \u201cTo the surprise of some people charged with protecting the White House as well.\u201d \u201cGreat. All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I know you have to get back to writing your next 7,000 stories. But we really appreciate the time. And this was fascinating. I definitely learned a lot of things.\u201d \u201cAppreciate it. It was fun hanging with you guys.\u201d \u201cSure thing.\u201d \u201cWho was the speaker?\u201d \u201cAl Gore.\u201d \u201cReally?\u201d [SOFT MUSIC]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/22\/us\/politics\/elon-musk-politics-roundtable.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He\u2019s one of the most powerful and polarizing figures in American politics, wielding influence over media, technology and 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