Is Elon Musk OK?

Elon Musk understands astrophysics, yet seems to have failed to grasp the strange laws of gravity which govern Washington politics. Last night, the world’s richest man confirmed what everybody in Washington already knew: his time as a “special employee” in the White House is over and he’s leaving his formal role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE). “I would like to thank @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” he said. “The DoGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

Musk’s public resignation may have been a necessary response to one of his many ongoing legal challenges. This week, a district judge in Washington, DC ruled that a lawsuit alleging Musk and DoGE are illegally wielding power over federal government operations could move forward. It’s become imperative, then, that Musk proves that Team Trump’s defense is true: that he is, and always has been, a temporary employee within the administration.

Musk is eager to stress that, whatever the dreaded mainstream media may say, he and Trump have not fallen out. But it seems ridiculous to deny that his relationship with the White House has grown more distant. This week he even dared to criticize Trump’s cherished “big, beautiful” tax bill. “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly,” he told CBS, in an interview that will be aired in full on Sunday. “I think a bill can be big or beautiful. I don’t know if it can be both.”

What a difference five months makes. At the start of Trump 2.0, Musk was everywhere. He was involved in key hiring and policy decisions, and, through the creation of DoGE, Trump appeared to have given him license to hack away at every federal government department. Musk’s team of youthful DoGEsters roamed the corridors of power, freezing all sorts of spending, laying off thousands of federal staff and upsetting the Washington blob in every way they could.

But DoGE was always going to run into the great wall of the legal and administrative state. And it did. Trump insiders quickly realized that, while Musk’s merry band of hackers could highlight or suspend government fraud or waste, the executive department had little constitutional authority over federal funding. “If it’s Elon versus the Machine, he’s shone a light on how the machine works,” one insider told me this week. “But he’s done nothing to throw a spanner in the works.”

While Trump himself may still be supportive of Musk’s work, his cabinet and senior staff have grown tired of Elon’s disruptive behavior. He’s clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, among others. In his public appearances – wielding a chainsaw on stage at CPAC, wearing two hats at cabinet meetings or parading his son X around the White House – Musk at times appeared to be exhibiting signs of hypomania. So much so that even some of his friends and family have asked themselves: is Elon OK?

He’s under a lot of strain, clearly. His biggest business, Tesla, has struggled since he became involved in frontline politics. This week, ahead of the car maker’s big “Robotaxi” launch, Musk’s own brother and a senior business partner sold off almost $200 million in stock. Elon’s ownership of X (formerly Twitter) has proved challenging, too. He may have turned the most influential news site in the world into a free-speech zone, but “user engagement” has flatlined, while other social media giants continue to thrive.

This week, too, Musk saw his precious SpaceX starship crashing back down to Earth following its ninth test launch. He desperately wants to colonize Mars, maybe so that he can get away from his problems here on Earth. You can’t conquer all of the worlds all of the time.

The above is taken from Freddy Gray’s weekly Americano newsletter. To subscribe click here.