Elon Musk along with Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Photo credit: CNP / Admedia / SIPA Press / Profimedia
Elon Musk has completed his activity in the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and is in an open conflict with US President Donald Trump, and Time has reviewed the most controversial moments of the founder Spacex and Tesla from the approximately three months spent as a special employee of the US Government.
On Friday, in the Oval Office, Elon Musk was asked about the article in The New York Times in which he is constantly consumed ketamine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms during the Donald Trump campaign.
“The New York Times. Is it the same publication that has received a Pullitzer award for False Relationship about Russiagate? Let's move on,” the Musk reporter answered.
The “cruel and disrespectful” e-mail
In February, Musk's activity at the Doge level raised question marks because of an e-mail sent to several government departments, by which employees were asked to answer within a certain time and to summarize what they did at work that week.
“The lack of an answer will be considered a resignation,” Musk added on the social networks. However, there was no mention in the e-mail.
Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of government employees, stated that the Directive is “cruel and disrespectful.”
Elon Musk has sparked a lot of controversies during the period at Doge, especially for massive federal staff discounts. He and the department were targeted by processes in several states, against the background of the accusations that they violated the Constitution by accessing the governmental databases, by terminating the contracts of the federal agencies and by dismissing the federal employees.
The resignations of Doge
Another moment that caused discussions was the one in which several civil servants resigned from Doge, invoking the refusal to use their expertise to “abolish essential public services”, according to a common resignation letter sent to the White House cabinet, Susie Wiles, on February 25, obtained by Associated Press.
The employees had worked for the digital service of the United States, but said that their duties were integrated into Doge.
In reply, Elon Musk said it was “False news from Associated Propaganda”. He claimed that the respective employees were from the Democratic Administration and “refused to return to the office”: “they would have been fired if they had not resigned.”
Accused of doing the Nazi greeting
A controversial moment was the one from the festivities organized after Donald Trump's investment at the US Presidency, when he was accused of doing the Nazi greeting.
Some, including the anti-defense league, expressed themselves in Musk's defense, arguing that he seemed to make a “left-handed gesture in a moment of enthusiasm.”
Musk himself addressed the controversy, stating: “Radical leftists are very upset that they had to take time from their crowded day in which they praised Hamas to call me Nazi.”
