Musk swaggered into national politics with the confidence of one who knows how to Get Things Done, boasting about how easy it was to cut government spending. The realities of governance and bureaucracy soon saw him change his tune: By the time of his departure, Musk was giving interviews about the “uphill” nature of his job and having to deal with a lot of complaints: “It’s really difficult…it’s sort of, how much pain is, you know, are the cabinet and is Congress willing to take.” At the same time, his personal reputation had begun to suffer, with the biggest hit being taken by his EV company, Tesla. Sales dropped by about 20 per cent, and profits plunged by more than 70 per cent during Musk’s time in DOGE. Protests and boycotts by those unhappy over the billionaire’s involvement in slashing government spending and mass layoffs also saw Tesla shares plummet in value, with unhappy shareholders pressuring Musk to step back. Trump’s punitive tariffs against China — Tesla’s biggest market — only made matters worse.

Despite all this — the reputational damage, the hit to his net worth (estimated to have dropped by about 25 per cent), and the many, many clashes with key members of the administration over his brash working style (including through open criticism of Trump’s tariffs and his “Big, Beautiful Bill”) — it is all but certain that Musk will bounce back. He still wields a hugely influential megaphone in the form of X, remains the world’s richest man and appears to have retained, at least going by the farewell event at the Oval Office, the friendship of the world’s most powerful man. In any case, there’s something about being a billionaire (most likely all those billions) that makes a person resistant to the slings and arrows of fortune — unlike, say, the federal worker who is struggling to find a job because she, long with thousands of her colleague, was laid off in the DOGE cuts. Or, the millions of HIV-positive people in other parts of the world who risk full-blown AIDS due to lack of availability of antiretrovirals, because Musk and his DOGE staffers spent a weekend in February “feeding” USAID — which, among many other things, was doing vital work to end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic — “to the woodchipper”. Musk exits Washington, possibly humbled (but not likely), but with much of his power and influence intact. His companies are reported to have scored both domestic and international business deals during his time in the Trump administration, including deals to bring Starlink, his satellite internet company, to new markets like India, and multibillion dollar government contracts for SpaceX. That there have been allegations of corruption and conflict of interest — with several Democrats demanding an investigation — is unlikely to slow down either Musk or his companies.

In the end, the meme that might most come to be identified with Musk’s dalliance with government may not be from that chainsaw moment on the CPAC stage or when he wore a “tech support” t-shirt to his first cabinet meeting. It would be the meme featuring a photo of a young girl smiling into a camera while a house burns behind her: Disaster Girl.

pooja.pillai@expressindia.com

Musk swaggered into national politics with the confidence of one who knows how to Get Things Done, boasting about how easy it was to cut government spending. The realities of governance and bureaucracy soon saw him change his tune: By the time of his departure, Musk was giving interviews about the “uphill” nature of his job and having to deal with a lot of complaints: “It’s really difficult…it’s sort of, how much pain is, you know, are the cabinet and is Congress willing to take.” At the same time, his personal reputation had begun to suffer, with the biggest hit being taken by his EV company, Tesla. Sales dropped by about 20 per cent, and profits plunged by more than 70 per cent during Musk’s time in DOGE. Protests and boycotts by those unhappy over the billionaire’s involvement in slashing government spending and mass layoffs also saw Tesla shares plummet in value, with unhappy shareholders pressuring Musk to step back. Trump’s punitive tariffs against China — Tesla’s biggest market — only made matters worse.

Despite all this — the reputational damage, the hit to his net worth (estimated to have dropped by about 25 per cent), and the many, many clashes with key members of the administration over his brash working style (including through open criticism of Trump’s tariffs and his “Big, Beautiful Bill”) — it is all but certain that Musk will bounce back. He still wields a hugely influential megaphone in the form of X, remains the world’s richest man and appears to have retained, at least going by the farewell event at the Oval Office, the friendship of the world’s most powerful man. In any case, there’s something about being a billionaire (most likely all those billions) that makes a person resistant to the slings and arrows of fortune — unlike, say, the federal worker who is struggling to find a job because she, long with thousands of her colleague, was laid off in the DOGE cuts. Or, the millions of HIV-positive people in other parts of the world who risk full-blown AIDS due to lack of availability of antiretrovirals, because Musk and his DOGE staffers spent a weekend in February “feeding” USAID — which, among many other things, was doing vital work to end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic — “to the woodchipper”. Musk exits Washington, possibly humbled (but not likely), but with much of his power and influence intact. His companies are reported to have scored both domestic and international business deals during his time in the Trump administration, including deals to bring Starlink, his satellite internet company, to new markets like India, and multibillion dollar government contracts for SpaceX. That there have been allegations of corruption and conflict of interest — with several Democrats demanding an investigation — is unlikely to slow down either Musk or his companies.

In the end, the meme that might most come to be identified with Musk’s dalliance with government may not be from that chainsaw moment on the CPAC stage or when he wore a “tech support” t-shirt to his first cabinet meeting. It would be the meme featuring a photo of a young girl smiling into a camera while a house burns behind her: Disaster Girl.

pooja.pillai@expressindia.com