The Follies of Elon Musk
By Jason Collins
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV
A Mastermind Unchecked
Visionary entrepreneur, owner of Tesla, and former friend of Donald Trump, Elon Musk has had a profound impact on technology and culture. Whether you like the man or not, there is no denying that he has been widely successful. Still, his career of success has been marked by public misjudgments, problematic behavior (to put it mildly), and impulsive decisions.
Musk’s story is a cautionary tale of leadership and brilliance without accountability.
A History of Undelivered Promises
Musk’s problematic behavior and history of lack of accountability erode public trust and investor confidence.
Over the years, Musk has made numerous significant promises, including his repeated assurance that Tesla’s full self-driving technology would be operational by the end of the year. Musk joked about this to investors in 2023, saying, “My predictions about achieving full self-driving have been optimistic in the past,” and added, “I’m the boy who cried FSD.” We’re now in 2025, and it seems his habit of making outlandish promises is proving hard to break.
Since 2021, Musk has been promising that Tesla would produce a humanoid robot, Optimus. Then he changed his tune and claimed that the company would make 50,000 of the robots next year. In April, he then told investors that the recent tariff war with China would impact production, and there is still no date set for the launch.
A Leadership Style Under Question
Musk has been in the spotlight frequently for his controversial leadership style, which teeters between visionary and toxic. It’s been well-known that Musk has a hardline stance on workplace productivity with a fear-based leadership approach. We saw this with his acquisition of Twitter and by requiring federal employees to submit weekly work summaries or risk being fired. However, the problem with this type of leadership is that it only yields short-term results.
On many occasions, Musk has referred to himself as a nano-manager and admitted it’s not a recipe for happiness. Business Insider reported that during a 2015 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Musk had explained, “I have OCD on product-related issues. I always see what’s … wrong.” He added, “I never see what’s right. It’s not a recipe for happiness.” He wasn’t wrong.
One SpaceX engineer has posted online,
You can always tell when someone’s left an Elon meeting: they’re defeated.
Federal workers and business leaders were the latest victims of Musk’s chaotic leadership style. In February, Musk, who headed up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sent out an email to federal employees asking them to respond with a five-bullet-point summary of their work. Failing to do so would result in termination. Musk was trying to reform the government by emails and posts he shared on X. Former Oregon government executive, George Carrillo, had told Business Insider, “This method [Musk’s leadership style] is not just ineffective, it’s harmful.” He also said,
Overloading employees with unrealistic demands creates instability and causes talented workers to leave, which risks disrupting the continuity and expertise the government depends on to function.
Tesla employees are now speaking out against Musk’s leadership style and citing him for the company’s declining performance. In an open letter, employees had written,
The damage done to Elon’s personal brand is now irreversible, and as the public face of Tesla, that damage has become our burden.
Wherever he goes, he leaves a trail of instability.
Elon Musk’s Trail of Chaos
You wouldn’t be wrong calling Musk’s personality inflammatory at times. He has a history of making unverified accusations, posting misinformation about medicine, politics, and conspiracy theories.
In 2018, Musk tweeted a reference to marijuana culture when announcing he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share. This resulted in him being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for violating securities laws. In that same year, Musk sent out an angry tweet calling Vernon Unsworth, a rescuer involved in the incident where boys were trapped in a Thai cave, “Pedo guy.” The insult resulted in a defamation lawsuit, but Musk was found not guilty.
Musk has also had a history of mocking self-selected gender pronouns on his media platform, and he has received backlash for this behavior. He made further waves by his alleged support of afD, a far-right party in Germany accused of Nazi sympathies. This was made worse with his alleged Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration. The internet was divided on whether he made the Nazi salute or not and maybe Musk himself doesn’t know if he did. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) believed that he didn’t. However, they later criticized Musk after he appeared to mock the incident online.
His most controversial moment is the explosive feud between him and Trump. This feud was long in the making and started with tensions over his DOGE spending spree. Massive cuts, layoffs, and exaggerated savings claims put him at odds with House and Senate Republicans. In March, Musk defended his actions to a room of frustrated House Republicans who were concerned about the methods Musk’s team used. His freeze funding, mass firing of federal workers, and dismantling of programs caused massive disruptions and dozens of lawsuits.
Musk’s idea to distribute savings from a government cost-cutting drive directly to citizens saw him in a showdown with Republican deficit hawks. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is also a strong ally of Trump, had said the plan went against Republican values. The $7,000 checks made headlines then disappeared, like so many of Musk’s ideas about government. Whiteboard notes distributed to the public and then erased without another comment. Negatives were starting to build up, and tensions began bubbling over when he disagreed with Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The building storm erupted when Musk slammed Trump’s bill, which contained Trump’s signature tax cuts and increased spending, as a “disgusting abomination.” Musk claimed the bill would defeat all the cost savings DOGE achieved, but the proposed EV tax credit cuts are a strong motivator for the fallout. This tax cut could end up costing Tesla and SpaceX billions. The online feud played out spectacularly with Musk claiming Trump was in the Epstein files, which he later deleted, and called for Trump’s impeachment. In return, Trump threatened to cut Musk’s government contracts.
Many believe that Musk is a misunderstood genius, which excuses his controversies. Tech journalist Kara Swisher has spent a lot of time writing about Musk, and during an episode of The Ezra Klein Show, she speaks more about his personality and what he wants. She said that for him, his motivation is not money, but the power money brings. She explains that his power is having ideas on all topics, and with that comes a “what I say goes” attitude and a manic personality. Swisher also comments that what makes Musk so unique is that he has a weird sense of mortality and seems to be on some “grand journey where he thinks he’s the hero.”
So, is he the greatest engineer he likes to think he is? To some extent, yes, he does deserve the accolades and has no doubt achieved some great feats. But he’s also human and is deeply driven by a need to leave a mark by reshaping how we think about technology and politics. In 2021, he revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, but does this excuse his actions?
In a world that gobbles up visionaries, we must be quick to demand responsibility. Because brilliance without accountability can quickly become a liability, and Musk’s track record shows a pattern of wielding influence without restraint. What’s more is that his leadership style and public behavior have undermined the very innovations he champions, revealing that even the brightest minds can leave behind a trail of disaster.
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