Good riddance!
Please join me in a moment of silence to mourn the end of the bromance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Its demise was inevitable. There is only so much room for two narcissists to occupy one space. CBS News interviewed Musk about ending his role with the government, and he said the criticism of DOGE was “unfair.” He sounds like Trump. Criticisms of DOGE’s work are more than fair; they’re true. DOGE employed a “slash and burn” method of allegedly making the government more efficient. They failed to examine each department to understand its operations, which could have revealed necessary changes for maintaining efficiency while reducing costs. Instead, many of the cuts made by DOGE served no purpose other than to make life harder for Americans who need to access services. The best example of this was Social Security. This agency was already understaffed, but they had figured out how to increase their efficiency to serve the public. There was no need to propose closing field offices or reducing the staff, neither of which would have saved enough money to counteract the hardships they would have created for elderly people.
Musk admitted during his interview that he doesn’t “agree with everything the administration does.” No, he just influenced it as much as possible, like convincing Trump that Afrikaners were victims of genocide, which led Trump to bring them to the U.S. as “refugees.” Musk lies as much as Trump, and he uses those lies to get what he wants. He repeatedly claimed that Starlink was unable to operate in South Africa because he “isn’t Black.” The site Snopes, which is best known for debunking lies, reached out to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which regulates telecommunications in South Africa. Surprise, the claim was untrue. The country’s foreign ministry advised that Starlink was welcome in South Africa if it followed the country’s laws. Snopes further asked whether Starlink had submitted an application that was denied, and the site was told by a representative of ICASA that Starlink has never applied for a license.
Digging even further, Snopes looked at laws created post-apartheid that were enacted to make up for previous oppression of Blacks. One of those laws required that companies operating in South Africa must give Black firms a stake in their operations. Snopes linked to an article from Semafor, which outlined how the South African government was looking at ways to waive the Black empowerment rules for Musk’s Starlink. In other words, Musk was lying again. One liar in or near the White House was enough. Good riddance to Elon Musk.
According to the Independent, this may not be the permanent end of Musk and Trump. The outlet covered Musk’s final visit to the White House (for now anyway). They wrote that Trump displayed a “tenuous grasp” on what Musk did, which is no surprise. Musk did nothing but create stress and confusion. The Independent called Musk and Trump “the most destructive professional partnership since Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader.” Time to celebrate Musk’s departure, even if it’s only temporary.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years