Musk brings his business playbook to Washington: Move fast and claim victory

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Like the Philadelphia Eagles with their tush push, the business tycoon has his favorite plays too, which he has used again and again in running Tesla and SpaceX and are now on display in the early weeks of the Trump administration. He wants to create momentum.

Don’t stop, just keep moving forward. Winning builds on winning—even if it isn’t clear if he is actually winning. “There’s already been really tremendous progress," Musk said this past week during a late-night briefing on X about his efforts in leading the government-efficiency efforts called DOGE.

Since Inauguration Day, Musk has helped gut USAID. Members of his DOGE squad—one of whom reportedly goes by the online nom de plume of “Big Balls"—are diving into records at the Treasury Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And his team is swooping in to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s air-traffic control system after the airplane crash over the Potomac River.

In business, Musk has benefited from the move-fast strategy to combat the risk of a negative sentiment taking hold, something that can be hard to turn around once a downward spiral begins. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) spoke in Washington at a rally for federal workers and supporters on Friday.

Politics, where power and influence often come from perception, can be very similar. Instead of falling stock prices and impatient shareholders, there are polling numbers and the risk of angering the new boss, President Trump. What Musk is proposing in Washington is controversial.