Sources detail Elon Musk's time in government, bringing his friends and employees, as he races to cut staff; Musk's plane has not left DC since the inauguration
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/u... X: Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : NEW: Elon Musk's fingerprints are all over these controversial memos from the Office of Personnel Management. In fact, Musk showed up at OPM's offices on Friday demanding a list of employees. And OPM is led by TONS of Elon's aides. Exclusive details at the link in reply.
Context & Ripple Effects
The report follows pre-inauguration accounts that Musk sought senior government roles for SpaceX personnel and that his advisory arrangement was designed to preserve control of his companies through allies. It suggests that personnel influence is moving from prospective staffing to day-to-day administrative action.
The same-day account of former Musk-company employees occupying OPM's top ranks provides the institutional backdrop: the issue is not only Musk's presence in Washington, but the concentration of trusted operators within the federal personnel agency.
First-order effects
- OPM's workforce guidance and internal staffing choices are immediately subject to influence from a network tied to Musk, while federal employees face faster and less predictable personnel actions.
- Musk's government role becomes more operationally consequential than the earlier advisory structure built around allies, because it is linked to specific OPM memos and requests for employee information.
Second-order effects
- Agencies dependent on OPM direction may have to prepare for rapid changes in hiring, workforce-management, and administrative processes as its guidance is implemented.
- The overlap between Musk's business network and government staffing increases pressure for clearer accountability around who is shaping personnel policy and under what authority.
Third-order effects
- If this model persists, politically connected private-sector networks could become a more durable channel for directing federal administrative capacity, rather than merely advising elected officials.
- The durability of that shift will depend on whether formal government controls can separate outside business interests from personnel decisions affecting the civil service.
The trend: This is one data point in the broader shift from informal executive advising toward embedding trusted private-sector networks inside the machinery of government.