My thoughts on Elon Musk

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

All you need to know about Modern Messiah Muttonhead is that he is a follower of "Little Taco" Trump.

 

[leftwinger]

Everyone knows SpaceX and Tesla get government grants. Are you that far out of the loop?!

Unlikely. Too lazy to check it out. IF even partially true? Then more for DOGE to find and cut. We know your DemWitted loons in Congress will never keep track and make cuts. You sucketh like maxine waters 87IQ you dumb OX.

 

[Robert W]

Everyone knows SpaceX and Tesla get government grants. Are you that far out of the loop?!

Hardly grants, both are hired by the Government to do work for the Government.

 

[CowboyTed]

Elon Musk is thought of both as an elitest, out of touch rich boy, who bought his way into American politics and slashed many essential programs for the working class and the poor, as well as a really smart, decisive guy who understands the reality of balancing a budget involves making hard choices that are not always popular.

As an Independent, I think the truth lies somewhere between these two views.

Despite being born into a wealthy family, Elon Musk was famous for working very long hours for months on end, overcoming the many barriers to developing a truly unique vehicle that was both affordable, supercharging, and easily updatable.

I don't think Elon truly understood what it was like to be a working class American, so his thoughts on what were essential programs, and which needed to be slashed were far from perfect, but I do believe what he proposed as cuts were done with the sincere intention of making the American Government a better one, so I'm not inclined to judge him too harshly. In addition, I agree with Elon Musk when he said recently: "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said in a May 27 interview on CBS Sunday Morning.

Elon is from Pretoria. I lived there for a year 20 years ago, about 10 years after he left... Pretoria was ground central in apartheid, even opposing it there still makes your world view of other races skewed. They just don't see poor black people in anyway equal... That is just back ground...

Elon himself is a gambler, he didn't come up with the tesla car but bought in and shoved out... He like a lot of billionaires have a social media staff telling you how smart he is and how special he is... Elon was a very average student. With his gambling he has good clarity of mind and can see opportunity and take good risks... This is actually his gift..

Trump was a very clear mistake... His peers did say that is very dangerous place to go, Musk consumer market was liberal environment concise car buyers... BYD has a better name than Tesla...

Elon also drank his own cool aid... He thought only he could fix the government... Seriously... He actually thought that he was somehow so smart that he could do it...
So he took the method which worked for him in Space X... Space X succeed because the were not afraid of failure... NASA has one crash and they spend months or not years in committees trying to analysis how tax money was lost... Engineering principle of success through failure is not taken into account... So SpaceX crashed a lot of rockets until they figured it out, well done. NASA would have been killed if they did the same...
So he took his same idea to Government... Problem is, this is not a space rocket you are breaking... This is huge management structures, this is social engineering which takes decades to get in place...

 

[konradv]

Hardly grants, both are hired by the Government to do work for the Government.

Cite? How is Tesla’s “research” going to funnel back to the people?

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Hardly grants, both are hired by the Government to do work for the Government.

As of 2025, Elon Musk's companies—including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company—have received an estimated $38 billion in total from the U.S. federal and state governments. This includes:

• Government contracts (primarily from NASA and the Department of Defense)
• Loans
• Subsidies
• Tax credits
  1

Breakdown Highlights:​

• SpaceX has received over $17 billionin federal contracts since 2015
  2
  .
• Tesla has benefited from $11.4 billion in regulatory credits and a $465 millionlow-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2010
  1
  .
• In 2024 alone, Musk’s ventures received $6.3 billionin federal and state support
  1
  .

 

[Concerned American]

What has he done that is so bad? America has $36T in debt and more coming. Do you realize the predicament? You are in major trouble.and your own courts are encouraging this insolvency, making it difficult for Trump to right the ship.

His detractors seem to think that a $36T debt will disappear with the wave of a wand. Getting out of debt is not painless. It takes hard choices and facing the reality of some sacrifices. However, my personal experience of navigating those waters have shown me the end result is worth the pain. Living debt free is the most liberating single thing that has happened in my life and the strangest thing about it is that we are able to afford anything that we desire and pay cash with no losses to the interest toilet.

 

[Foxfyre]

Elon Musk is thought of both as an elitest, out of touch rich boy, who bought his way into American politics and slashed many essential programs for the working class and the poor, as well as a really smart, decisive guy who understands the reality of balancing a budget involves making hard choices that are not always popular.

As an Independent, I think the truth lies somewhere between these two views.

Despite being born into a wealthy family, Elon Musk was famous for working very long hours for months on end, overcoming the many barriers to developing a truly unique vehicle that was both affordable, supercharging, and easily updatable.

I don't think Elon truly understood what it was like to be a working class American, so his thoughts on what were essential programs, and which needed to be slashed were far from perfect, but I do believe what he proposed as cuts were done with the sincere intention of making the American Government a better one, so I'm not inclined to judge him too harshly. In addition, I agree with Elon Musk when he said recently: "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said in a May 27 interview on CBS Sunday Morning.

First the idea that Musk's parents were wealthy just doesn't hold up on the fact meter. Elon grew up as many of us did, i.e. not dirt poor but not privileged either.

Was Elon Musk Born Rich? Mom Says They Were Really Poor In Toronto

Elon Musk didn't always have an easy ride in life. His mom shares how they lived in poverty in Canada after moving from South Africa.

www.ibtimes.com

Secondly I don't know what Elon's IQ is but I bet it is Mensa level. His brain works in ways that most of our brains don't. He can envision concepts, ideas, possibilities that never would occur to a more average person. And like all great people, he is emotionally able to be content taking great risks, risking and accepting failure, correcting mistakes, going at it again until he finds something that works. It is a trait of all highly successful people.

As Edison is quoted as saying, "I didn't fail to make a working lightbulb 1000 times. I found 1000 things that didn't work."

And even so, those who know Musk say the richest man in the world is a very down to Earth, humble person even as he is a tough manager/leader. From what I've read, his managers/people either love/admire him or hate him. Such is the lot of all great people it seems. Some say he requires too much from his people. Others say working for him is a good engineer's dream where there are no limits of possibilities--the pencil is never down.

He has divested himself of almost all real property so that he can focus on his businesses, innovation, new ideas/concepts. He lives in a $50,000 ranch house in Texas.

He's nobody's lackey for sure. While he unequivocally supports the MAGA vision, he was very disappointed with the size of the "Beautiful Big Bill" that increased the deficit he, Musk, was concentrated on bringing down. But if he and Trump disagreed on that it only illustrates that each thinks for himself. Honest people will always disagree on something.

Musk is not leaving DOGE because of any falling out with Trump or anybody else. He is not leaving because of a dishonest media/social media savaging him or leftist domestic terrorists attacking his businesses. (Notice it is almost always the left doing that kind of malicious crap.)

Why would the richest man in the world devote/donate his time and talent for free and incur significant financial loss just to incur that kind of personal abuse? I am confident that he honestly wanted to give something back to a country he loves.

It's a pretty safe bet he will stay in contact with his DOGE team and provide input as he devotes more time to his businesses to shore up and comfort his investors.

 

[buttercup]

 

[Captain Caveman]

Musk's job was to eliminate "waste, fraud, and theft", not to pamper the government workers.

The DOGE team are expert at running modern companies, they know who needs to be cut, and how to modernize it.

DOGE was -

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration within the federal government with the stated objective to modernize information technology, maximize productivity and efficiency, and cut wasteful spending.

Not to eliminate.

 

[AntonToo]

He has divested himself of almost all real property so that he can focus on his businesses, innovation, new ideas/concepts

No dumbass, he has divested himself from all real property to skip paying taxes.

If he has no real property to personally buy and own, then he doesn't need to realize taxable income and can keep his wealth invested and tax-free.

You are talking about Musk skipping on home because it supposedly distracts him from his business.....this while Musk fathered 14+ children from multiple women and has taken most of his time in the past year to get neck deep in partisan politics and destroy his company's brand.

 

[BULLDOG]

Stupid OX. “He” didnt like? “no one” likes paying empty buildings, $1mil contracts where nobody shows up, 100 man hours needed to search thru stacks of paper that a $200 computer can do in 1nano sec.

SHUP loon. You embarrass the nation. Get out fat boy,

SO where is the proof of all that fraud he says he found?

 

[Foxfyre]

DOGE was -

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration within the federal government with the stated objective to modernize information technology, maximize productivity and efficiency, and cut wasteful spending.

Not to eliminate.

Splitting hairs there though aren't we?

 

[Foxfyre]

No dumbass, he has divested himself from all real property to skip paying taxes.

If he has no real property to personally buy and own, then he doesn't need to realize taxable income and can keep his wealth invested and tax-free.

You are talking about Musk skipping on home because it supposedly distracts him from his business.....this while Musk fathered 14+ children from multiple women and has taken most of his time in the past year to get neck deep in partisan politics and destroy his company's brand.

Show your evidence for that or admit you are just maliciously trolling.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

His detractors seem to think that a $36T debt will disappear with the wave of a wand. Getting out of debt is not painless. It takes hard choices and facing the reality of some sacrifices. However, my personal experience of navigating those waters have shown me the end result is worth the pain. Living debt free is the most liberating single thing that has happened in my life and the strangest thing about it is that we are able to afford anything that we desire and pay cash with no losses to the interest toilet.

GOP will not make those choices, period. I am not sure the dems will, either.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

still no proof of DOGE alleged fraud

anyone suprised?

 

[Concerned American]

GOP will not make those choices, period. I am not sure the dems will, either.

On that we agree. However I am as convinced that the democrats will never make those choices either. If you are a student of the last 80 years or so, you would agree.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

On that we agree. However I am as convinced that the democrats will never make those choices either. If you are a student of the last 80 years or so, you would agree.

I think we think alike on this.

 

[Robert W]

As of 2025, Elon Musk's companies—including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company—have received an estimated $38 billion in total from the U.S. federal and state governments. This includes:

• Government contracts (primarily from NASA and the Department of Defense)
• Loans
• Subsidies
• Tax credits
  1

Breakdown Highlights:​

• SpaceX has received over $17 billionin federal contracts since 2015
  2
  .
• Tesla has benefited from $11.4 billion in regulatory credits and a $465 millionlow-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2010
  1
  .
• In 2024 alone, Musk’s ventures received $6.3 billionin federal and state support
  1
  .

OK, is there a point you want to make John Edgar Slow Horses?
You lauded Musk by telling us all the value he does for the US Government that includes the people of the USA.

 

[Modern Messiah]

Everyone knows SpaceX and Tesla get government grants. Are you that far out of the loop?!

Why can't you answer my simple question.
Do you have any proof that Musk took government funds and used it in his own projects.