He loves the grand show, does Elon Musk. Whether it’s entering the headquarters of Twitter, his new purchase, carrying a kitchen sink, warning of the cuts to come – or revelling in being handed a chainsaw on stage and boasting of slashing bureaucracy – he’s someone for the dramatic. There’s a tendency to regard what he does as somehow new and arresting, as if we’ve not been here before. But we have.
In the UK, politicians would throw screeds of computer printouts in the air at their party conferences to indicate how they would be eradicating government waste. To cheers, they would proclaim it was going to end. In other speeches and interviews too, they boasted of their intention. We still have colossal public expenditure, and the Whitehall machine, if anything, is bigger than ever.
Of course, with an emboldened, ultra-aggressive boss behind him, Musk and America may succeed in attaining something we have not. Equally, they are at an early stage of making proclamations, signing executive orders, putting a red line through everything. Once the effects begin to show, what then?
It’s possible, in the Donald Trump echo chamber of distortion and dissembling, problems and issues that arise may be brushed aside, casually and coldly dismissed. But if there’s chaos and societal breakdown, how will the US president and his superstar stormtrooper explain that one?
It’s among the oldest tricks in the business management playbook, usually from an incoming owner, to ban all outgoing payments from time to time. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can go out of the building, from the company, unless it has been cleared. No matter how trivial.
Suddenly, those taxis, orders for flowers, or the particular but more expensive brand of coffee for the staff canteen, they stop. Also, what ceases as well is the more significant and valuable stuff, the stuff that really is essential. The chiefs are subject to a deluge of complaints and soon, items are restored, or they explain it was not their intention that they should be delayed or scrapped.
As a way of focusing thinking, there’s no doubt it works. Instead of taking an age poring over costs line by line, it quickly transpires which must be kept and which can be safely discarded. As a tactic for maintaining and improving staff and supplier relations, it is less effective.
Enter: Musk’s explosive email, sent out to federal workers to list what they achieved last week.
The message, which asked every recipient to list five specific things they had accomplished last week, landed on Saturday. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the 48-hour deadline would lose their job. Agencies including the FBI, State Department and the Pentagon instructed their staff to ignore the request, contradicting the White House’s apparent support for the initiative.
It seemed like the easiest of ploys: to pose the simple, broad-brush question and seek a specific, detailed answer on pain of being fired. No matter that it was deeply unfair. As the world’s richest man, Musk possesses an accolade that elevates him to a level beyond compare in the eyes of Trump (woe betide the day that the Tesla, SpaceX, and X, formerly Twitter, king loses his crown) and grants him carte blanche. Bingo: we’re back in the schoolyard with the bully. Hit back, tie them in knots, make them appear stupid and they will cave in.
Musk has now admitted it was all a ruse anyway – to test that said employees were “capable of sending an email” in the first place.
“Ruse” or not, it is notable that the courts and department heads – including the FBI director Kash Patel – seemingly encouraged workers to push back – and to flout the “official” directive.
Nothing riles this president more than judges claiming a higher authority – when the latter does occur, it presents a conundrum. Patel, for instance, is a Trump appointment – he was only sworn into office last Thursday, and there he was, days later, instructing staff to “pause” their responses.
Perhaps the best of all the defiant responses appeared on the X timeline (ouch). Secret Service managers reportedly told agents to respond to Musk’s surprise email thus: “This week I accomplished: 100% of the tasks and duties required of me by my position description; 100% of the work product that my manager and I have agreed to; 100% of the duties and performance elements that are used to evaluate my performance; 100% of the deliverables requested of me by my direct supervisor; I exceeded expectations in the delivery of the above.”
So, what if we took it seriously and turned the email around?
The same question of “what you’ve achieved” could be fired at Musk – but make it over a few years, rather than a week. That could, perhaps, include grilling him about the price he paid for Twitter: $44bn.
Investment firm Fidelity retains shares in the rebranded social media platform. On its last reckoning, they said they have fallen 79 per cent in value, making X worth just $9.4bn.
So, Elon – what did you and YOUR kitchen sink achieve?
