The (unelected) richest person in the world, with a sprawling business empire that has many interactions with the federal government, has been given free-reign with no oversight to fire any federal workers that he wants and has usurped Congress' power of the purse by stopping Congressionally appropriated spending.
This creates numerous conflicts of interests and opportunities for self-dealing.
Consider a NASA employee that is awarding government contracts. They know all of the above. They have three bids in front of them. One from Boeing (lol), one from SpaceX, and one from Axiom Space. They NASA employee thinks the bid from Axiom Space is the best value and fits the requirements the best. But will they select them, or will they select SpaceX, knowing that they could be fired tomorrow by Musk's whim?
Repeat this scenario across every interaction any of Musk's companies have with the federal government.
This isn't a novel scenario. Putin's Russia is a great example of what happens when oligarchs are granted significant autonomy over organs of the government. It is a system designed to facilitate corruption.
You could assuage my concerns, though, by describing the ways that there is effective oversight over Musk, or by describing the anti-corruption anti-self-dealing measures that have been imposed on Musk. The Press Secretary gave a statement on this saying: "As for concerns regarding conflicts of interest between Elon Musk and DOGE, President Trump has stated he will not allow conflicts, and Elon himself has committed to recusing himself from potential conflicts." That...does not resolve my concerns.
This creates numerous conflicts of interests and opportunities for self-dealing.
Consider a NASA employee that is awarding government contracts. They know all of the above. They have three bids in front of them. One from Boeing (lol), one from SpaceX, and one from Axiom Space. They NASA employee thinks the bid from Axiom Space is the best value and fits the requirements the best. But will they select them, or will they select SpaceX, knowing that they could be fired tomorrow by Musk's whim?
Repeat this scenario across every interaction any of Musk's companies have with the federal government.
This isn't a novel scenario. Putin's Russia is a great example of what happens when oligarchs are granted significant autonomy over organs of the government. It is a system designed to facilitate corruption.
You could assuage my concerns, though, by describing the ways that there is effective oversight over Musk, or by describing the anti-corruption anti-self-dealing measures that have been imposed on Musk. The Press Secretary gave a statement on this saying: "As for concerns regarding conflicts of interest between Elon Musk and DOGE, President Trump has stated he will not allow conflicts, and Elon himself has committed to recusing himself from potential conflicts." That...does not resolve my concerns.