Musk no longer works for the White House
Scandal-plagued tech multibillionaire Elon Musk is leaving politics. His role as head of the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, which was tasked with streamlining the state apparatus and cutting government costs, was limited by law to 130 days. Prior to his exit his initially close relationship with Trump had already visibly cooled in recent weeks and his electric car company Tesla had also run into difficulties due to a slump in sales.
Pride came before the fall
Večernji list sums up:
“Musk was useful to Trump during the election campaign as a guarantee for populist promises of a trimmed-down bureaucracy, immigration control and rule by the people. But once US citizens started getting fired from their jobs and Trump's poll ratings plummeted, it was clear that Musk's political end was nigh. ... Musk's rise will remain a prime example of how the concentration of power without clear accountability and democratic control can threaten the very foundations of a political system, and his fall is a reminder that even the most successful innovators are not immune to the consequences of their own experiments.”
A mighty machinery as his legacy
Technology expert Marta Peirano examines Musk's legacy in El País:
“He leaves behind a powerful virtual bureaucracy machine, an automated, technical administrative system that functions without accountability and by decree. ... For philosopher Hannah Arendt, separating power from those who wield it was a characteristic of totalitarian regimes, because the administrator is reduced to the role of an instrument of the law. What remains is the 'rule of nobody'. ... Trump's genius lies in the fact that if it works, the machine is his. If it breaks down, it was programmed by the junkie Musk.”