Elon Musk prepares for next act: Red-tape cutter in chief
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If Elon Musk becomes chief red-tape cutter in a second Trump administration, he is already giving a taste of what’s to come. His recent comments suggest the Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency would be where he directs scrutiny if he is put in charge of leading Donald Trump’s government efficiency commission, tasked with reducing government and regulations.
On Tuesday, Musk said he planned to sue the FAA, claiming it was engaging in “lawfare" and “regulatory overreach" after seeking roughly $633,000 in fines against his rocket company, SpaceX, for alleged violations. Those comments followed similar critiques a week earlier of the EPA. “The FAA space division is harassing SpaceX about nonsense that doesn’t affect safety," Musk tweeted.
No businessman today works regulators the way Musk does—threatening, cajoling, flattering—as he advocates for his companies’ interests. He has essentially gone through an entire can of alphabet soup of agencies, from the SEC and NHTSA to EPA and NLRB. In doing so, Musk is making it clear he is willing to fight over any perceived slight.
The risk is that such tactics, often done publicly before his almost 200 million X followers, makes even a tough agency think twice about going up against him again—especially as appointed leadership thinks about post-government work or underlings worry about losing protection once an administration turns over. Now, Trump is promising to give Musk even more leverage in such fights: the implied power of the presidency. Musk would say he isn’t against regulations in general—just specific ones that don’t make sense to him.
Read more on livemint.com
