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Elon Musk might be placing Tesla individuals in an actual pickle, and never within the methods you could be pondering. Or perhaps it’s only a not-very-thought-out “yeah, let’s do it!” after some combination of imbibed potions however would by no means really occur. Both method, since he’s put it on the market and there are doubtlessly causes he’d go that route, let’s rapidly discover a number of eventualities for Musk and Tesla.
First, what the heck are we speaking about?
A few days in the past, Elon Musk posted this:
I’m keen to serve pic.twitter.com/BJhGbcA2e0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2024
That was within the midst of many different right-wing posts, together with claiming that Donald Trump didn’t name neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville “very high-quality individuals” in 2017 (oy vey) and lamenting that gun emojis look increasingly more like toy weapons moderately than actual weapons.
The purpose of this tweet embedded above seems to be that Elon Musk would fortunately function the pinnacle of a “Division of Authorities Effectivity” (DOGE). Naturally, that’s a reference to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency Musk overestimated for years. So, there’s a query of whether or not that is all a joke, however that appears unlikely since he says “I’m keen to serve” and has indicated elsewhere that he might work in a Trump administration on the sort of factor.
The primary issues that got here to thoughts for me with this have been:
- Tesla followers and shareholders could also be pleased with Musk stepping into authorities underneath the belief that he might affect issues from there to assist Tesla in numerous methods.
- Nevertheless, Musk would want to chop again considerably on his Tesla work if he took that job, and most Tesla followers and shareholders nonetheless see him as essential to progress within the firm. (There are numerous others who’ve come to conclude the alternative, however the latest shareholder vote appears to point these persons are within the minority.)
Would the identical individuals who can be blissful about Musk getting that job be blissful about him stepping again from Tesla (to not point out X, Neuralink, SpaceX, The Boring Firm, and no matter different ventures I’m forgetting now)?
Nevertheless, I wasn’t even pondering deeply sufficient about this. As CNN factors out, “Something’s doable, after all, in a Trump 2.0 White Home. However to tackle any main function in that administration, Musk would have a mountain of conflicts of curiosity to climb.” Ah, yeah, you may’t simply work within the US authorities whereas working a enterprise — there are conflicts of curiosity with that. (To not say Trump wouldn’t work to dismantle them, however that’s the story immediately.)
“By legislation (and by frequent sense), you may’t work on authorities issues that might have an effect on your personal private funds. That’s a giant downside for somebody like Musk, whose $245 billion fortune is essentially tied up in shares of Tesla, SpaceX and X (previously Twitter), alongside along with his holdings within the fields of biotech, synthetic intelligence, satellite tv for pc communications and street infrastructure initiatives.”
Sure, and, apart from Tesla, which is regulated by numerous authorities companies similar to different automotive corporations, SpaceX will get enormous contracts from the US authorities. How would Musk disentangle himself from all of that? By promoting his shares in these corporations? Hahaha, that’s not taking place. “A lot would depend upon what the job is and the way it pertains to his financial curiosity,” stated Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Legislation College. “Is there something that wouldn’t relate to his financial pursuits? I’m undecided what that might be.”
It appears to me that is one other not-very-thought-out concepts from Trump and Musk geared toward two issues: getting extra consideration and assist for themselves. On the identical time, each are blissful — if not keen — to interrupt guidelines, even legal guidelines, and spend the results of that using extra attorneys. So, who is aware of what they might push and take a look at? Nonetheless, simply as Dogecoin by no means went to the moon like Musk hyped for months and even years, don’t anticipate Musk to enter authorities service.
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