As companies seek to benefit from Doge’s reshaping of the government, Musk also has extensive contracts worth billions of dollars through his own companies like SpaceX that are potentially set to expand under the new administration.
Musk’s decimation of government agencies has drawn comparisons to the frenzied cuts he made after acquiring Twitter in 2022, but the long-term effect of Doge may more closely resemble how SpaceX enmeshed itself with Nasa to the point where it now handles the majority of the United States’ space launches.
While Doge begins to make deep cuts throughout the government, Musk and those acting on his behalf have called for implementing new artificial intelligence systems in federal agencies and completely overhauling American weapons programs.
Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman spoke favorably of the effort on recent earnings calls, while the Predator drone-maker General Atomics Aeronautical Systems wrote a letter directly to Musk last month asking him to speed up the way the Pentagon handles defense contracts.
Donald Trump has given Musk enormous power to reshape the government, including on Tuesday issuing an executive order that requires agencies to coordinate with Doge on staffing decisions and cuts.
