Errol Musk, the father of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, recently spoke about his son’s new role in Donald Trump’s administration, where Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed to lead the newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). The planned presidential advisory commission aims to reduce waste, cut bureaucracy and improve efficiency across federal agencies.
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In an interview, Errol Musk gave insight into how he feels about Elon’s new position. He expressed mixed emotions, mostly around the potential impact on Elon’s commitments to his many companies, including Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), SpaceX and X. According to Errol, having Elon in a government role is exciting but also brings some real concerns about his time.
Errol Musk acknowledged that Elon’s new government role is significant but noted that Elon already has a lot on his plate. With his existing leadership positions, taking on a government role adds even more to an already busy schedule.
“Elon has a tremendous task on his hands,” Errol said. “He has a couple hundred thousand employees and a lot of very serious things going on in his life, so he has to be available for all that he started … [he] can’t just walk away from things.”
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He added, “To have him sit in an office somewhere in Washington, waiting and twiddling his thumbs – no, no. He has to be called upon on a sort of consultancy basis.” Errol made it clear that he’s not entirely comfortable with Elon having to dedicate a lot of time to government work if it comes at the expense of his businesses. It would be a “big concern” if he had to step away from the board meetings and other company responsibilities to go to the government.
Errol Musk also praised his son’s ability to improve efficiency, citing his experience in turning struggling businesses into highly productive and profitable entities. He highlighted Elon’s drastic staff cuts at X after its acquisition, reducing the workforce from 8,500 employees to about 1,000 while still making the platform run better than before.