Since taking up work for President Donald Trumps’ so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk’s electric car company Tesla has seen sales slide and has become a target for protests. Now some believe that damage could be terminal and that Musk poses a risk to companies outside of his own.

A National Park Service ranger conducts a walking tour in Shark Valley, part of the Everglades National Park, on April 17, 2025. Everglades National Park and all other national parks are now being run by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Governmental Efficiency.

If Elon Musk's effort to remake the federal government was ever really about "waste, fraud, and abuse," those DOGE days are over. His quasi-agency has made huge and unprecedented changes to what the federal government does.