[coldpie]

And all it took was ending public science funding and trust in public health and regulatory oversight and destroying the legislative and judiciary branches. Crazy how all the things it takes to get to Mars are also the same things that make him, personally, wealthier and more powerful.

[Treegarden]

Well, let’s assume you’re correct about all that. To me, it seems he was already quite rich before doing all the Trump-related things you mentioned. Those might have made him richer, but I’d suspect they didn’t move the needle much compared to his real profit centers (probably Starlink and Tesla). If anything, I’d argue those actions made him poorer by further damaging his reputation. And any “power grab” motives he may have had likely evaporated after his fallout with Trump. One current example is exactly what sparked this thread: the NASA Chief seemingly trying to impress Trump by attacking SpaceX.

[dylan604]

The best theory into why Musk was so gung-ho about DOGE was specifically to shut down any government agency that was out to keep him from continuing to increase his wealth. By that measurement, he was in charge of the most successful government agency. Whether or not that had any positive/negative affect for Trump was merely an irrelevant by product of the actual mission.

[philipallstar]

That's not the best theory. He thinks government was too big, and wanted to cut waste. Trump, it turns out, wanted to have a "big beautiful bill" and Musk strongly opposed that, saying any bill that's big isn't beautiful. So he got moved off DOGE by Trump.

SpaceX has always complied with the regulations and timings needed by regulatory bodies. This isn't a thing.

[dylan604]

Ge got moved off of DOGE because his 120 days were up. It was never a permanent gig for Musk. Those gigs require congressional approval.