Trump’s ally Musk is processing the government – but will they encounter?

After days of speculation about the exact role that the most rich person will play in the White House of Donald Trump – how much power he will have, whether he is a civil servant – he has taken the social media platform he possesses to clarify.

“My preferred title is just” Technical Support, “wrote Elon Musk on Tuesday. It was a familiar underestimation.

As the head of the nascent Ministry of Government Efficiency (Doge), Musk has become the dominant force in the dizzying start of the Second Trump Administration.

In just two weeks, he has made an effort to conquer access to the federal payment system, dismantled the whole agency and offered millions of government officials to ultimatum – left or fired.

But Musk’s increasing attempt to revise the federal government with the same dumb power he used to control companies as Twitter, they put him on a clash course with the Washington establishment.

And while he has secured a place in the inner circle of Trump, observers are wondering if a reflection between these two powerful personalities can be outlined.

Musk’s journey from a billionaire entrepreneur to a White House power player was not simple. In his own accounting, Musk – for decades – has been a reliable vote for the Democrats.

But dissatisfied with Biden’s position on labor laws to transgender’s rights, Musk began to look on the other side of the path at the beginning of the 2024 presidential election.

Initially, Musk called on Trump to “hang his hat and to sail in sunset” and support his opponent, Florida Governor Ron Ron, for the Republican nomination. But he soon became the largest booster of the president, contributing to $ 288 million to Trump and other republican candidates and became a key counselor in the campaign.

At the time of Trump Musk, he was his right -wing man, sitting just behind the left shoulder of the President of the daisy, an unmistakable symbol of his influence.

“You know that I always say we should be protective of our geniuses because we don’t have too much. But this one is good,” Trump told Musk after greeted him at the rally stage the previous day.

Since then, Musk has been an almost constant presence in the capital of the nation.

Almost immediately after his election, Trump knocked Musk to manage Dodge, and at first glance, he was authorized by a large -scale mission to reduce and transform the federal government, insisting on massive stunning speed reforms.

Although Trump said that Musk would not receive an office in the west wing, the technical leader and his team have moved beds to the federal office of staff in the neighborhood of the White House, according to the New York Times.

He has a top secret security authorization, confirmed an employee of the Trump administration, which potentially gives him access to a wide flow of highly classified information.

His tactics – ruthless, sometimes ruthless – reminds him of managing his previous companies, former employees say.

A former Tesla program manager who talks to the BBC about the conditions of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said Musk is “not interested” in the human costs of his decisions.

“He only deals with the goal. I think he looks at interpersonal problems and conflicts as ancillary things that don’t cost his time,” he said.

Sometimes the musk is prone to the impulsive. The manager recalled that he saw Musk fire a Tesla employee on the spot over overcrowded garbage.

“He interprets that as a sign that this person is not proud of his job as he should,” he said. “It was the nuance for it … But at the end of the day, someone was fired because he admitted that their garbage was overcrowded.”

The approach gave a committed workforce, the employee said. If you were on board with Musk’s mission, this unambiguous focus is motivated, he said, and helped feed on a regular basis of 13 plus days of work.

“He can escape more from the people than anyone I have ever seen,” he recalled, though he added that the intensity in Tesla was nominal for the Silicon Valley course.

But for those in the federal government, the employee added: “It must be a cultural shock.”

There was no agreed work of Musk on behalf of Trump, it didn’t feel as intense as the USAID.

The government agency responsible for international development has been from the allocation of billions to help programs around the world to an effective dead stop in just two weeks.

Trump has already restricted USAID’s work significantly when he paved a 90-day pause in foreign expenses in the United States, while the administration reviewed the funds to make sure they were in line with the President’s policy goals.

But in recent days, employees have been watching with an increase in the alarm, while Musk has looked directly at USAID, labeling its Crime Organization of X.

Musk’s increasing rhetoric coincided with equally drastic changes in USAID.

On February 1, the USAID website stopped working; Its X account seems to be gone not long. The same weekend two senior security officers were put on administrative leave after confrontation with Dogetta representatives about access to a secure facility used to review classified information, Washington Post reported and other US retail outlets.

On Monday, USAID employees were told to stay home while hundreds of employees were locked from their email. CBS, the BBC American news partner, reports that USAID employees have been removed from their respective countries around the world until Friday.

“This is out of repair,” Musk told the agency during his 50-minute conversation on X spaces early on Monday morning.

“I went with him in detail and he agreed that we should close him,” Musk told his conversation with Trump. “And I actually checked with him several times (s) I said,” Are you sure? “

“Elon Musk comments are particularly shortened, calling us a” criminal organization “that he should” die “,” said a USAID employee who wanted not to be baptized because they were afraid of revenge by Musk and the administration.

“Coming from the most rich man on the planet, it feels quite grotesque,” said the employee, who has since been put on administrative leave, along with many other colleagues.

“I see employees of foreign services who have spent their entire lives serving – much of it abroad – and the victims they made,” they said. “To drag through the mud like this is disrespectful.”

Raising in USAID has sparked concerns from Democrats and experts whether Trump and Musk’s actions are legal.

For their part, Trump and Musk’s efforts to close USAID “are not legal, as he faced what Congress explicitly did earlier,” said John Rogowski, a professor of political sciences at the University of Chicago, who studied the separation of the authorities in the US government.

The Congress has established a USAID as an independent agency, and the legislative branch assigns funding.

However, as a head of federal agencies, Trump has broad powers to present certain USAID functions under the control of the State Department, according to George Ingram, a senior associate at the Brookings institution and a former USAID department.

One such move included the appointment of Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the acting Head of the USAID when the agency operates independently of the State Department in the past while following its foreign policy guidelines.

And influential Republicans in Congress seem to work with the administration to allow some degree of change.

“I support the Trump administration’s efforts to reform and restructure the agency in a way that better serves the interests of US national security,” said Senator James Rish, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Although Musk has no authority to exclude or restructure USAID, the agency probably could not be dismantled as quickly and thoroughly without its influence.

“I cannot think of any precedent when the presidential administration essentially surrendered the reins to a private citizen to pass and take control of the executive branch, as he considered good,” said G -n Rogovski.

In a statement to the BBC, the White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt said that Musk “is selflessly serving the administration of President Trump as a special government official and he complies with all applicable federal laws.”

Before taking up Trump’s office, some of Musk’s peers expressed optimism in the prospect of injecting a startup culture in Washington.

“I think we have just had a very exciting moment,” said Mark Benioff, founder of the billionaire and CEO of Salesforce, who was voted in support of Trump, “BBC told the BBC in December. “This is a new chapter for America.”

“There are many incredible people like Elon Musk in the technology industry and in the business community. And if you can touch the power of expert experience to make the best of America, it’s a great vision,” he said at the time.

But two weeks after the Trump administration, some observers say that not everyone in the Silicon Valley is enthusiastic.

Nicky Christoph, a former CEO of Salesforce, who now runs a DC communication company, told the BBC that many “people in the (technological) industry seem dumb from the events of the last two weeks.”

“Most executives of publicly traded multinational technology companies want predictability. They want stability. They want a strong dollar,” she added. “They want predictable supply chains and many of the policies and titles coming out of Washington create anxiety and insecurity.”

Dr. Philip Low, a neurologist and CEO of Neurotechnology Company Neurovigil, said the Musk playboy could cause the government institutions. The two were close to nearly 15 years before their relationship was destroyed, he said.

“His model is to take companies, invest in them, destabilize them and then take them,” said Dr. Low, citing Twitter as an example.

“In this context, the White House is its biggest investment so far. And it destabilizes the US government now.”

According to Dr. Low, Musk will not be satisfied that he is a trusted deputy who can focus him on a clash with the president, his boss.

“Knowing Elon as I, he doesn’t want to be number two or number three. He will want to take over,” he said.

“Whatever he decides, he goes,” said the former Tesla employee, echoing Dr. Low. “He never accepts no answer.”

After shaking in USAID, Trump has made it clear that the final authority will always rest with it.

Asked if he was pleased with Musk after the agency’s overvoltage, he said “yes” – “in his bigger part.”

“Sometimes we won’t agree with this and we won’t go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job,” he said on Monday.

“Elon cannot do and will do nothing without our approval and we will give him approval when it is appropriate. Where it is not appropriate that we do not have,” the president said.

“He reports in.”