this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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Speculation of Tesla CEO’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane

Elon Musk is reportedly set to leave his government role because he’s tired of the what he sees as a litany of vicious and unethical attacks from the left, according to a report from The Washington Post.

It remains unclear when Musk will depart as head of DOGE; his special government employee status will expire at the end of next month. A person familiar with his thinking told The Post that Musk thinks that his work at DOGE won’t be diminished because of his departure, noting that staffers have already established themselves across a slew of federal agencies.

But speculation of Musk’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane. The New York Times reported last week that the acting commissioner of the IRS was being replaced after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained that Musk had his preferred candidate installed without Bessent’s support. Musk has also annoyed other cabinet members by failing to coordinate with them in cost-cutting moves.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 minutes ago

This better not be like the time he said he was gonna step down from running Twitter and then he didnt. He better follow through on his promise. And take his tech bros trying to shut everything down with him.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 minutes ago

This is just posturing to make people feel like we're not speed running towards fascism. I doubt that there will be any slow down behind the scenes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 minutes ago

Not going to change my mind. He’s for Donald.. I’m against him.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 minutes ago

If he leaves that means the autocrats are ready to complete their coup. Then our only chance will be the military.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 minutes ago

Does he need help packing his shit?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 30 minutes ago

We should totally all agree that we will leave Musk alone and start treating him nicely if he leaves politics wink wink nudge nudge

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

He should just focus on making rockets fly and cars self-drive.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

He's just avoiding an audit.

They like to flout the law in real time because they know there are no real consequences, but Musk still doesn't want to leave an opening for a federal or state DA to sue him for financial disclosure and conflict of interest, if only to avoid the PR scandals from discovery.

He's probably going to 'officially' bow out, but maintain a totally-not-suspicious amount of digital communications with the army of fuckup loyalists he installed.

You know, just like that time the fuckup in chief relinquished control of his extraordinary number of conflicts of interest.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I hope that Musk leaves politics in a wooden box.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

He's a vampire so only if he leaves during the daytime.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago

Even the hat in that picture is looking to escape that douce.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Damage done. It's not even good news at this point.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

"Elon Musk is reportedly set to leave his government role because he’s tired of the what he sees as a litany of vicious and unethical attacks from the left..."

OR...hear me out...Trump is sick of him and wants him gone (because two egos that large cannot coexist in the same space indefinitely) and this is the cover story.

OR...Elon has already accomplished 99.9% of what he wanted by gaining access to all the data he wanted and further embedding SpaceX, Starlink, etc., into government contracts.

OR...some mix of all of the above.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Like that will save him. He has always been a dickbag and will always be one. Just took a lot of people way too long to realize it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Maybe get back to Tesla, I hear it’s stock is tanking.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago

Fuck this guy forever.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago

Excellent, please do, Elon. Arguably he has never been in politics, he just bought off Trump to get a job.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 hours ago

Keep up the bullying, it's working.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 hours ago

Politics is a form of negotiation with other elements of leadership to make a nation's major policy decisions.

Musk, you never DID get involved in politics. You hired a private army and got involved in criminal intimidation.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 hours ago

Consequences? Me? But I'm rich and cool!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago

We did it Lemmy

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Holy shit, I didn't think the bullying campaign would acturally work. This is a grand victory for all workers of the world and a sign of whats to come. When all the workers of the world unite we can overcome the iron hand and destroy any fascist.

NEVER BACK DOWN FOR THEY ARE WEAK AND WE THE WORKERS ARE STRONG

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Make bullying great again

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

And it has nothing to do with the expiry on the special appointment coming up where Trump will either have to make him a real federal employee with all the legal exposure that confers or let him go.

As others have pointed out, he’s already compromised systems, downloaded what data he could for Peter Thiel/Palantir, broken those organizations to the furthest extent he is able, and likely will have continued access to the data through illegal means in the future for himself/his handlers.

He’s not ‘leaving politics’ because those mean liberals, he’s leaving because as a useful idiot, he’s fulfilled his use and maybe realized he was being used as an idiot, but likely not.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Seems odd to imply he is concerned about the legal exposure of being a federal employee but willing to maintain illegal access to government data.
I don’t think he cares one lick about legal exposure. Others are just pushing back against what he wants to do, and he doesn't like obstacles.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

Trump can do whatever he wants. The Supreme Court said so, Congress won't complain, and he has already completed the first round of purges of the executive branch.

He could declare a horse his co-consul and the only downside would be some snarky mentions in some histories written by the senatorial classes.

[–] [email protected] 108 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

He is the richest man in the world. He has every resource available to him. He constantly punches down. He doesn't deserve any sympathy.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

You can't buy a likable personality.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 hours ago

He tried, but he colflated a person on the leaderboard of a video game with a likeable personality

(No offense to likeable people on leaderboards)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I often wonder what the world would be like right now, if he'd simply taken it on the chin, congratulated that cave diver on rescuing those Thai kids, and went about his day, rather than jumping right into calling him a paedophile and sinking into ever further nutbaggery.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

That event didn't make him a fucknugget. It just showed the entire world that he was, in fact, a fucknugget.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Wouldn't have changed at all.

That event didn't change him at all, for fuck sake

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

No but I do feel like he nailed the ‘era’ where he started going off the deep end. From there on my graph it’s been a downhill slide from there. I thought it couldn’t go lower, but, as they say… lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

I also wonder ….. while it’s a safe bet that he didn’t change with that event, it was also one of the first times he strayed into something he knew nothing about to show his true nutbaggery. When he was talking about his companies, his products, that side of him didn’t really come out more did it really affect anyone outside his employees. That event made it clear the world was hanging on his every word and really shouldnt

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

what will they rename DOGE to

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago

Fucking Elon's Chainsawing of Everyone's Shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

We did it, Reddit

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