Conflict Much, Elon?
Get To Know His Empire
Elon Musk is running around touting how he and his predatory hackers are rooting waste out of America. Really? Without really knowing what has been touched, or torched, inside the data systems, one data scientist has stated it could take decades to restore the government electronically. Think about it. A single egotist, egged on by a demented narcissist, may have in two weeks caused decades of damage to America’s data. It boggles the mind.
Get ready for more boggling. If you have an anger management device, have it close by. (I use bubble wrap.)
Let’s look at the current state of affairs. Currently, SpaceX has approximately $22 billion in contracts with the Department of Defense of which $15 billion is derived from NASA. Tesla has $41.9 million in contracts with the government including receiving payment for vehicles at some U.S. embassies. This week, Musk received another $38.8 million contract from NASA. Read that again - this week. There is also an outstanding loan of $465 million to Tesla from January, 2010.
Trump has publicly designated Musk a “Special Government Employee”. 18 USC 208 prohibits “federal employees, including Special Government Employees, from participating personally and substantially in a particular Government matter that will affect his own financial interests as well as the financial interests of certain individuals with whom he has ties outside the Government.”
A letter questioning Musk’s participation in and management of DOGE and the conflicts of interest presented has been sent to both Attorney General Bondi and David Huitema Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, by 18 Democratic legislators. Huitema has since been fired by Trump. I wonder why. Democratic legislators also believe Musk is subject to strict disclosure standards established by the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
Let’s dig a little deeper into Musk issues.
TESLA - Tesla is owned by a mix of individual investors, institutional investors, and public companies. Musk is the largest individual investor. Zachary Kirkhorn, former CFO (or Master of the Coin) of Tesla, is a shareholder, as is Musk’s brother, Vanguard Group and Blackhawk. Remember the people guarding the doors at the agencies DOGE is fiddling with? Yeah, they’re Blackhawk.
Tesla has been being investigated since August, 2021, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to malfunctions in auto-driving cars. The NHTSA reports to Congress and is part of the Department of Transportation. We all know that Department is now headed by Sean Duffy, a former lobbyist with BGR Group.
Tesla has also had run-ins with unions. Tesla is currently the only non-unionized American auto manufacturer. Musk has stated that any employees who strike in an effort to unionize would be fired. It is against federal law to fire striking workers.
The EPA, under assault by DOGE, has filed several complaints against both Tesla and SpaceX.
SPACEX - Elon Musk is the majority shareholder in SpaceX, a private company, at 42%. SpaceX has had its own share of troubles. SpaceX was cited in a complaint by the National Labor Relations Board after firing eight employees for circulating material critical of Musk. The company is also the target of FAA regulatory actions over environmental concerns. The same type of environmental concerns has led California to ban launches along the state’s central coast.
SpaceX is currently seeking contracts from NASA (for a mission to the moon), the Department of Defense (for satellite communication systems), and the FCC (for rural broadband services).
The NLRB is adjudicated by administrative justices. A few words in the ear of Trump to get a couple of administrative judges removed would help SpaceX. Since Musk was awarded a contract this week from NASA, I guess he’s still in good with them though. Trump’s pick for Chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, comes to us from Project 2025 and wrote some of the document. Even before his appointment, Carr had publicly stated that the FCC had treated SpaceX unfairly.
X - X, formerly known as Twitter, is owned by Musk through his firm X Holdings Corporation. Musk owns 42%. X has been the subject of a shareholder lawsuit involving a motion to unseal the list of shareholders. The list has been published by the Washington Post. The list includes a Saudi Prince, several Silicon Valley investors, and Sean “Diddy” Combs as well as about 96 others.
Prior to purchasing then Twitter, Musk, and others influenced by Musk bad-mouthed the stability of the platform. Stock dropped, giving Musk a lower purchase price. When stock went up after the purchase, Musk made a killing. He is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and may face criminal charges based on how he publicly communicated about Twitter before the purchase.
X is also under investigation due to a recent change in the service policy where the firm would sell user data to be used in AI training. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also had become involved in investigating, and regulating, Musk’s move (with VISA) to have X serve as another PayPal and brokering sensitive user data. Well, there’s no more CFPB. How convenient.
xAI - This holding by Musk has put Musk in direct confrontation with Open-AI’s Sam Atman. Musk even offered to buy Open-AI to remove the competition. But xAI has more problems than Altman. Musk has stated xAI wants to build the largest supercomputer in Memphis, and has already installed four large gas generators to power the data center. These generators are in a predominately Black community. The Southern Environmental Law Center has accused Musk of operating the generators without permits, and calls the pollution from the center “environmental racism”.
NEURALINK - Musk has started research on human brain implants (hello Zombieworld) through his company, Neuralink which he founded in 2016. Neuralink is being investigated by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture. The investigations stem from reports on how animals have been killed in the research process.
Musk and some of his holdings are also being looked at by the Futures Trading Commission (Musk favors merging this with the SEC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Internal Revenue Service.
If you follow the dots of ownerships and possible legal ramifications, there is a pattern. Much of Musk’s empire has issues that are touched by one or more of the agencies DOGE is devouring. The possible reach of 18 USC 208 into Musk’s entrepreneurial flow could be quite deep. Perhaps this informs the speed with which the DOGE minions are progressing?
My head spins with what further questions could be developed with an even deeper dive into shareholder lists, bank relationships, and outstanding loans.
It’s clear as day, though. Musk has got to be halted, investigated and consequences set out and adhered to.