People
Elon Musk was named the de facto head of the Department of Efficiency by Donald Trump after his inauguration. The decision caused some concern when Musk started to take a lead role in the government. Politics is always on people’s minds; everything and everyone is analyzed, including Musk.
While Musk is most known for Tesla, the electric car brand, he didn’t actually create it. Musk became involved with Tesla engineers one year after it was founded and personally donated $6.5 million and led a funding campaign. This led him to become Tesla’s largest shareholder and chairman of the board. Musk had big plans for Tesla and took leadership while the company gained its footing. Musk became the CEO and product architect through his innovative vision for electric cars.
Tesla isn’t the only company Musk owns. Musk bought X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 for $44 billion. His motivation was to make the platform more open by advocating for free speech and reducing content censorship. Once Musk took control, he fired executives and eliminated the main policies, which created concern over user protection. Musk was now in control of a central social media platform and could manipulate how it was used.
Musk didn’t just influence social media, but also a small part of the government. SpaceX is a private aerospace company Musk founded in 2002 with the hope of colonizing Mars. While he hasn’t achieved that yet, the company still has made significant developments within the space industry. SpaceX and The United States Armed Forces meaning Musk previously had a connection to the government before Trump came into office.
Musk was initially against Trump and voiced his doubts about Trump’s suitability for office. After the assassination attempt against Trump in 2024, Musk started endorsing Trump and they created an alliance. Musk gets government contracts to advance his businesses and in return, he supports Trump’s administrative agenda. While it benefits both, tensions are increasing with Musk forcing himself into a more important role within the Trump administration.
Since Musk has come into the political spotlight his past has been also coming to light. Musk has been married three times, the first to Justine Wilson a Canadian author in 2000 and the second and third time to Talulah Riley, a British actress, from 2010-2012 and 2013-2016. In 2018 Musk had a relationship with famous musician Grimes (Claire Boucher) and they had three children together but split in 2021. Musk has a total of 14 children from four different women and he recently shared he built a $35 million family compound in Texas for all of his children and two of their mothers.
One of Musk’s children has come out and shared disturbing news with the world in light of his recent publicity. Vivian Wilson one of Musk’s older children is 20 years old and has chosen to share a look into her life growing up under Musk. She claims Musk uses sex-selective IVF to only conceive boys on her and multiple of his other children and that one of the reasons they don’t speak anymore is because Wilson went against his plans by being transgender. Musk hasn’t responded to the claims but in 2022 he was said to have an “engineering approach to reproduction” and that at least five of his children were conceived through IVF and were assigned male at birth. While the procedure is legal it’s controversial to most because of ethics.
All of the information coming out about Musk and his actions revolving around his politics and children is taking a toll on his income. In one day he lost $29 million after Tesla shares decreased by 15% and it also took around $200 million off his net worth.
Musk is a source of controversy from all angles of his life. While he has advanced American technology and space research he has also made unfiltered speeches and has a questionable leadership style. It seems every day new updates on Musk’s actions within the white house and within the home are reported, so only time will tell how much power Musk really has.