The New York Times described the various ways that Elon Musk is helping himself and his business empire as he reorganizes the federal government. It was clear from the start that Musk has multiple conflicts of interest in his relationship to the government. He has taken control of several agencies that are investigating his business practices. He presently receives billions of dollars of federal subsidies for his SpaceX project and other businesses. It’s impossible to imagine any other President allowing a person with so many financial conflicts to make consequential decisions.
Eric Lipton and Kirsten Grind of The New York Times wrote:
President Trump has been in office less than a month, and Elon Musk’s vast business empire is already benefiting — or is now in a decidedly better position to benefit.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man who has been given enormous power by the president, have been dismantling federal agencies across the government. Mr. Trump has fired top officials and pushed out career employees. Many of them were leading investigations, enforcement matters or lawsuits pending against Mr. Musk’s companies.
Mr. Musk has also reaped the benefit of resignations by Biden-era regulators that flipped control of major regulatory agencies, leaving more sympathetic Republican appointees overseeing those lawsuits.
At least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by those moves have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions into Mr. Musk’s six companies, according to a review by The New York Times.
Trump firings hit agencies with oversight of Musk’s companies
Staffing changes, including the firing of several top officials, have affected agencies with federal investigations into or regulatory battles with Elon Musk’s companies.
The events of the past few weeks have thrown into question the progress and outcomes of many of those pending investigations into his companies.
The inquiries include the Federal Aviation Administration’s fines of Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, for safety violations and a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit pressing Mr. Musk to pay the federal government perhaps as much as $150 million, accusing him of having violated federal securities law.
On its own, the National Labor Relations Board, an independent watchdog agency for workers’ rights, has 24 investigations into Mr. Musk’s companies, according to the review by The Times.
Since January, Mr. Trump has fired three officials at that agency, including a board member, effectively stalling the board’s ability to rule on cases. Until Mr. Trump nominates new members, cases that need a ruling by the board cannot move forward, according to the agency.
Over at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a public database shows hundreds of complaints about the electric car company Tesla, mostly concerning debt collection or loan problems. The agency has now effectively been put out of commission, at least temporarily, by the Trump administration, which has ordered its staff to put a hold on all investigations. The bureau also is an agency that would have regulated Mr. Musk’s new efforts to bring a payments service to X.
“CFPB RIP,” Mr. Musk wrote in a social media post last week as the Trump administration moved to close down the bureau…
Traditional federal conflict of interest rules seem almost antiquated, if Mr. Musk is determined to be involved in specific decisions about agencies his companies do business with.
That is why Mr. Musk’s role is so concerning to former White House ethics lawyers in Democratic and Republican administrations alike.
No kidding! Elon Musk has the power to close down agencies that are investigating his businesses. That’s not normal.
He also has the personal data of every person, from their tax filings and Social Security. That’s a treasure trove, worth a lot of money.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Once Musk is done robbing us, Trump will be looking for the next ‘donation’. We need some democrat MTG’s causing more uproar. Nothing is being done.
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Once a grifter always a grifter, eh!
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In addition, we should not be downplaying the significance of Musk repeatedly posting imagery regarding the number 14, such as recently posting 14 flags in response to Trump’s statements on immunity, the 14 cog gear wheel in DOGE imagery(also see imagery used by the German Labour Front), and his use of the term “Kek.” Pay attention.
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What is the meaning of the imagery you refer to?
I ask because I am not on X, so I’m not aware of how Musk uses this imagery.
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DOGE imagery, not Dodge.
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You might wonder how anyone could get by with this degree of kleptocracy. How indeed? Fascism was a similar criminal hijacking of governmental functions.
Arguably, Medieval Europe was governed by multiple competing criminals who washed their dominance in church doctrine and vied with each other for a pie that was severely limited by the dominant Islamic empires and the challenging movement of nomadic peoples driven west by coopetition for territory.
For more of man’s history than anyone wants to admit, criminals have been the government. At times, the criminals have run parts of American government. This is exactly why the conservative assertion that a strong central government threatens individual civil liberties is flawed. Never were the civil liberties of individuals so abridged as when the federal government decided not to protect freed slaves and their descendants between the end of slavery and the civil rights movement.
Musk and other racists know this, and they argue for decentralization of government in order to achieve their sordid ends.
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Good points, Roy. It is the generally states that are guilty of discriminatory mischief, and it is the feds that try to intervene.
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That’s Al flipped now. The federal government is now insisting that states, universities, and schools must ignore civil rights protections.
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THAT’S ALL VERY NICE AND VERY TRUE, BUT, other than talking and writing about it, there’s nothing that can be done about it. There is no longer a viable opposition Democratic Party, just a bunch of individual members of Congress who complain, but are powerless.
Musk has warned Congress that if anyone opposes or criticizes him, he will spend $100,000,000 to defeat that congressmember in the next election.
Musk can easily do that. Very easily. Check out the Math:
Key Factor to remember is that Musk has a fortune of $400 BILLION.
There are approximately 300 Republicans in Congress. If Musk spent $100 million to defeat each of those 300 Republicans, that would cost him only $30 billion, leaving Musk with $370 billion. He’d hardly miss the $30 billion spent on electing his own Congress.
Let’s say that Musk decided to spend $100,000,000 to defeat EVERY member of Congress, Republican and Democrat, and elect his own entire Congress. Well, there are 535 members of Congress in total, House and Senate: 535 times $100,000,000 to defeat each and elect Musk’s own toadies is still only $53.5 billion, leaving Musk still with $347 billion to also elect all the state governments that he wants.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision put our republic up for sale, and megabillionaire Musk is buying it. He’s aiming to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Health Care Act health insurance, and Social Security.
Why? Because he can. He can do anything he wants.
The U.S. Supreme Court enabled this by putting our government up for sale, and the Court can’t stop the process anymore than it was able to stop Andrew Jackson from ignoring the Court. The Court and Congress are powerless to stop the Trump Revolution that will end The Great Experiment. Outcries and dissent are already barely tolerated. That toleration will end, as it did in 1930s Germany. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the 2026 elections — there won’t be any.
On Wed, Feb 19, 2025 at 6:01 AM Diane Ravitch’s blog < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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