Musk’s Fork in the Road

When his email threat fizzled, he tried to blame it on Trump … we’ll see how that goes

Elon Musk got a surprise yesterday. His government counterpart to his corporate Fork in the Road memorandum is facing pushback from numerous federal agencies.

Musk wrote an e-mail asking all federal employees to justify their existence or resign (or presumably be fired).

Musk, aside from his other horrible traits, has a deeply-set belief that you can run the government like a business. Newsflash Elon: you can’t.

Yesterday, several agency heads appointed by Trump told their workers to ignore Musk’s email. Musk responded by pushing back, claiming he had a mandate from Trump.

Among the agency personnel who told their staffs to ignore Musk’s email were representatives of Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Kristi Noem. There are conflicting reports about Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s. instructions.

The Times reported that even federal judges received the e-mail. Obviously, Musk (if he has any authority at all) has none over the judiciary. Judges and staff were also told to ignore the directive.

There are growing signs of concern (wonder if that includes Susan Collins) among many officials about Musk’s massive power grab and its effect on their agencies. It seems that some of Trump’s appointees are already realizing that they have real jobs managing real people with real-world consequences.

Members of Congress, facing hostile town halls, are beginning to speak out, albeit carefully. As for Trump, he has said nothing, further suggesting that he too is afraid of Musk taking to X to criticize the administration. We can speculate as to why Trump won’t rein in Musk. Already, Musk took to X to go after the defense department official who instructed employees to ignore the e-mail.

Aside from the fact that this is a violation of the union contracts governing the status of federal employees, it is idiotic, arrogant and blatantly illegal. Musk has no official status and it is time somebody acted on that fact and brought pressure now to shut down this horror show. This man is unstable, by many accounts a drug user and a manifestly megalomaniacal individual.

The question remains what and who will stop this dangerous nonsense. The Republicans in Congress are afraid of him and Trump appears to be as well. We can speculate why, but the frightening reality is that Elon Musk is acting as an unelected president, operating with the assistance of a cadre of twenty-something neo-Nazis.

The courts have ruled against him again and again, but have no means of enforcing their dictates. While some cabinet officials have pushed back, it is questionable how far they are willing to go to rein in Musk.

The town halls are promising, in that they may prompt Republican members afraid for their seats to pressure Trump to shut down the malevolent clown show and focus on the economy.

Ultimately though, the public will have to rise up and cause pain to Congress. If that pain is insufficient, then the usual answers apply: massive strikes, boycotts and relentless pressure through every legal means possible.

One thing is certain. This cannot continue. Already employees are being called back as critical services suffer and more will have to be as this vile exercise continues. Time for whatever grown-ups exist to get serious and stick a fork in Mr. Fork in the Road. This weekend’s pushback is a good start, but it is not nearly enough.