Elon Musk to be nominated by Trump to head DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency)

It was one of the wildest bets in recent economic and political history, and it paid off: Elon Musk, the megalomaniacally wealthy entrepreneur, has seen his staunch support for Donald Trump rewarded with an upcoming appointment to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

  

According to the press release, this brand-new entity is to “send shockwaves through the system” by relentlessly deregulating and drastically reducing the federal budget. The boss of Tesla, Space X and X, will work jointly with Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, at the head of this brand-new department. 

 

During his campaign, Donald Trump had repeatedly mentioned his desire to create a commission to deal with government efficiency.
  

Elon Musk has invested over $100 million in the president-elect's campaign, and has used his social network, on which he posts non-stop, as a sounding board. Now he's a minister, as well as being head of Tesla, the world's leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, and SpaceX, his space company.
 

Elon Musk is leading a number of other projects that illustrate his techno-futuristic vision of science-enhanced humanity, destined to thrive on other planets. One of these projects is Neuralink, a start-up that aims to link the human brain directly to the computer. A megalomaniac and a workaholic, this serial entrepreneur has always cultivated an image of a rebellious, provocative, anti-political boss.
 

A millionaire before the age of 30 after selling an online software company he had set up with his brother, Elon Musk went on to found X.com, which later merged with PayPal and was acquired by eBay in 2002. His libertarian, openly masculinist line and his virulent criticism of immigration have made him increasingly popular with the American right. He has even won over Donald Trump, who called him a “super genius” in his victory speech.
 

Elon Musk also has a penchant for conspiracy theories: this year, for example, he claimed that the Democratic Party was “deliberately importing illegal migrants” to boost its electoral base. In July, he announced with great fanfare that he would be moving the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas, in protest at the passage of a law on transgender students in California, a state that Republicans constantly criticize for its progressive policies. He had already moved Tesla's headquarters there in 2021.
 

On X, Elon Musk has given his advice on how to end the war in Ukraine, caused controversy by offering to “have a baby” with superstar Taylor Swift after she took a stand against Donald Trump, and described as “interesting” a theory that only “dominant males” should make political decisions.
 

In May 2021, he revealed that he had Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. More recently, he has said he takes ketamine, a powerful anesthetic sometimes diverted for stimulant or euphoric purposes, to treat a tendency to depression. Divorced three times, Elon Musk is the father of ten children, one of whom died at 10 weeks. One of them, a transgender daughter, has filed an official request to change her surname as well as her gender, in order to cut all ties with her father.