Eric Lipton
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
In the fall, we spent a month looking at all of Musk's operations with the federal government, all of his contracts, all the investigations. We had a database that was built and that allowed us to quickly know what the pending lawsuits, investigations, and contracts were.
So it was actually didn't take nearly as much time now that we knew where all the matters were to go back and look and see, okay, several members of the National Labor Relations Board have been fired and no longer has a quorum or two members of the SEC have left or the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has just been fired or the head of the Office of Government Ethics has been removed.
So it was actually didn't take nearly as much time now that we knew where all the matters were to go back and look and see, okay, several members of the National Labor Relations Board have been fired and no longer has a quorum or two members of the SEC have left or the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has just been fired or the head of the Office of Government Ethics has been removed.
So it was actually didn't take nearly as much time now that we knew where all the matters were to go back and look and see, okay, several members of the National Labor Relations Board have been fired and no longer has a quorum or two members of the SEC have left or the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has just been fired or the head of the Office of Government Ethics has been removed.
And we were able to cross-reference all of these actions that Trump has taken and look at the investigations that we knew about and see that these have been disrupted. We did not find evidence so far that Musk reached in himself and determined these outcomes. But what we were able to establish is that he has clearly benefited from all of the disruption that has occurred.
And we were able to cross-reference all of these actions that Trump has taken and look at the investigations that we knew about and see that these have been disrupted. We did not find evidence so far that Musk reached in himself and determined these outcomes. But what we were able to establish is that he has clearly benefited from all of the disruption that has occurred.
And we were able to cross-reference all of these actions that Trump has taken and look at the investigations that we knew about and see that these have been disrupted. We did not find evidence so far that Musk reached in himself and determined these outcomes. But what we were able to establish is that he has clearly benefited from all of the disruption that has occurred.
I mean, I think that this is going to be significant depending on whether or not it's not completely overturned by federal courts. But I think that this is going to be one of the bigger realignments in modern decades of the scale and reach of the federal government if they are able to play this out as they hope.
I mean, I think that this is going to be significant depending on whether or not it's not completely overturned by federal courts. But I think that this is going to be one of the bigger realignments in modern decades of the scale and reach of the federal government if they are able to play this out as they hope.
I mean, I think that this is going to be significant depending on whether or not it's not completely overturned by federal courts. But I think that this is going to be one of the bigger realignments in modern decades of the scale and reach of the federal government if they are able to play this out as they hope.
And I don't, you know, do I really believe that Musk is doing this to try to influence how his companies are treated? No, I don't. I think that he does think that the government has, you know, there's too much federal regulatory overreach, that there's inefficiencies.
And I don't, you know, do I really believe that Musk is doing this to try to influence how his companies are treated? No, I don't. I think that he does think that the government has, you know, there's too much federal regulatory overreach, that there's inefficiencies.
And I don't, you know, do I really believe that Musk is doing this to try to influence how his companies are treated? No, I don't. I think that he does think that the government has, you know, there's too much federal regulatory overreach, that there's inefficiencies.
I mean, this is a guy who has the reason that he is so massively successful in building SpaceX is he built the most efficient spacecraft. commercial space company in the history of the space industry. And the cost of getting to orbit has radically reduced because of his efficiencies. He's a master at reducing the cost of assembly line operations and building rockets that get into orbit.
I mean, this is a guy who has the reason that he is so massively successful in building SpaceX is he built the most efficient spacecraft. commercial space company in the history of the space industry. And the cost of getting to orbit has radically reduced because of his efficiencies. He's a master at reducing the cost of assembly line operations and building rockets that get into orbit.
I mean, this is a guy who has the reason that he is so massively successful in building SpaceX is he built the most efficient spacecraft. commercial space company in the history of the space industry. And the cost of getting to orbit has radically reduced because of his efficiencies. He's a master at reducing the cost of assembly line operations and building rockets that get into orbit.
And he's bringing that same approach to the federal government, and he's really disrupting it. But in the process of that, the disruption is benefiting his own companies, and that is a conflict of interest.
And he's bringing that same approach to the federal government, and he's really disrupting it. But in the process of that, the disruption is benefiting his own companies, and that is a conflict of interest.
And he's bringing that same approach to the federal government, and he's really disrupting it. But in the process of that, the disruption is benefiting his own companies, and that is a conflict of interest.
The thing that is most striking to me is just the number of places that he, through either contracts or regulatory investigations, that they are looking at him at the same time as he now has the power over them. It's the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior.