Semafor tech editor Reed Albergotti argued in a column Friday that the world needs Elon Musk far more than the government does.
Musk has served as a special government employee under President Donald Trump since Inauguration Day and was tasked with trying to cut "waste, fraud and abuse" in government using a program under the Office of Management and Budget. Trump signed an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency on his first day in office.
Musk said last week that he would "spend less time on DOGE and focus on Tesla, as the 130-day clock on his appointment as a 'special government employee' runs down."
“DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism,” Musk said, according to a report by Semafor’s Shelby Talcott.
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According to The Associated Press, "DOGE had sought to cut spending by $1 trillion. Musk estimates he’s cut $160 billion so far and acknowledged it would be hard to get anywhere close to $1 trillion."
“It’s sort of, how much pain is the Cabinet and the Congress willing to take?” Musk said, according to a Thursday report. “It can be done, but it requires dealing with a lot of complaints.”
Albergotti explained that there is a need for the U.S. to continue a tech race with China, and it needs all hands on deck.
"The ironic thing about Elon Musk’s leaving Washington is that now he can get back to really working for the American people. Musk’s empire of companies are so crucial in the technology race with China that they overshadow anything he could have accomplished at DOGE," wrote Albergotti, with emphasis on the word "really."
He called the stakes "very high" and expressed concern that if the U.S. can't beat Chinese innovation, there's an increase in the "likelihood of a bloody war over Taiwan."
"To win this race, the US must advance its own technology faster, and with leaner companies less reliant on cheap labor and imports," Albergotti wrote. "That basically describes Tesla and Musk’s other companies, from SpaceX to Neuralink to xAI.We’ve read countless headlines lately about how Chinese automaker BYD is eating Tesla’s lunch."
He claimed that Tesla is a better company than the Chinese BYD and that Tesla "built" the market that BYD is now attempting to "undercut."
"The US needs Musk, not in government but in the private sector, where he can continue to build companies that drive American jobs, economic growth, and force the Chinese government to fork over billions in subsidies just to play catchup," Albergotti argued.