02/08/2025

The U.S. Government Is Not a Startup

Musk is moving fast and breaking things that cannot afford to be broken

It feels like no one should have to say this, and yet we are in a situation where it needs to be said, very loudly and clearly, before it's too late to do anything about it: The United States is not a startup. If you run it like one, it will break.

The onslaught of news about Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government's core institutions is altogether too much—in volume, in magnitude, in the sheer chaotic absurdity of a 19-year-old who goes by "Big Balls" helping the world's richest man consolidate power. There’s an easy way to process it, though.

Although Donald Trump is president of the United States, Musk has made himself its CEO. This is bad on its face. Musk was not elected to any office, has billions of dollars of government contracts, and has radicalized others and himself by elevating conspiratorial X accounts with handles like @redpillsigma420. His allies control the U.S. government's human resources and information technology departments, and he has deployed a strike force of eager former interns to poke and prod at the data and code bases that are effectively the gears of democracy. None of this should be happening.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.