r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • Mar 06 '25

Soft Paywall Elon Musk Suddenly Doesn’t Want Credit for Disastrous DOGE Cuts - Musk is warning Republicans to stop blaming DOGE for the cuts.

https://newrepublic.com/post/192415/elon-musk-warns-republicans-doge-job-cuts
59.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

144

u/burlycabin Washington Mar 06 '25

In fact, his money could disappear tomorrow and he'd still be in an incredibly powerful (and incredibly undeserved) position.

This isn't true. Musk is only influential because of his money at this point. If he lost it all, the real people in charge wouldn't give him the time of day. His influence is fully bought and contingent upon his continued support.

(That said, he's so fucking wealthy, his money isn't going to disappear)

3

u/RabidGuineaPig007 29d ago edited 29d ago

But he's not actually wealthy. He is massively over leveraged. The only reason why he isn't broke already is because his creditors need to keep this Ponzi scheme going.

I don't think people understand wealth. You can own $100B in stock values and not have $17 for a dozen eggs.

What he actually spends on bribes is borrowed on a stock now worth half what it was in November, and has a serious valuation of 8% current value.

2

u/burlycabin Washington 29d ago

This is a gross misunderstanding of how Musk's wealth.

1

u/identicalBadger Mar 07 '25

No he does own one of the worlds largest megaphones and can change algorithms at a whim to detriment what people see. He can easily sway future elections without spending a dollar. The only difference would be that he’d lack the money to threaten dissenters with well funded opponents in the primaries

1

u/paraffin 29d ago

His ownership stake in Twitter is considered part of his net worth. If he no longer had money he wouldn’t own Twitter and would immediately be replaced as its ceo by someone competent.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[deleted]

14

u/soldforaspaceship Mar 07 '25

I think you're forgetting that Congress does what he wants because he's openly threatened to fund primary challengers to anyone who dissents.

If he doesn't have the money to do that, it's entirely possible his influence will wane.