For the large majority, the American Dream is a lost ambition that chipped away with the gold rush and the end of industrialization. But for some, this dream of wealth, glamor, and vast power is something that can be achieved through something as basic as learning how to code and tapping into an undiscovered market.

For the current richest man in the world, Elon Musk, achieving that dream was only the first step on a long ascent to not only financial success, but also political reign. 

Born in South Africa to a mother who worked five jobs at a time to support her family, Musk was immediately a businessman. He taught himself how to code and created Zip2 and X.com which later became PayPal.

His ambition took him from South America, to Canada, and finally to the United States where he became a citizen in 2002. He remarked that, “I came to North America because I felt this was where there was opportunity to do great things in technology,” and many will say he did just that. Co-founding companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI that became immensely profitable. 

Musk even dabbled in having fun with his wealth, creating projects like The Boring Company that was originally born out of jokes on Twitter about selling flamethrowers and building a tunnel underground in Las Vegas and from LA to San Francisco (the two former of which he actually did). But in the previous years, Musk has drifted from his post as a relatively silly, tech billionaire, prankster persona, and seemingly taken American politics as his new frontier. 

Musk became an outspoken conservative (despite previously identifying himself as a Libertarian and mostly voting Democrat), advocating for policies headed by the Trump administration that he believed would save the country. He donated over 200 Million dollars to the campaign and became a frequent character along the road to the White House.

He appeared at several rallies (sometimes with enough enthusiasm to jump) and even became synonymous with a particular “Make America Great Again” signature hat. It was safe to say that even at this point Musk was already gaining more political power than that of his billionaire counterparts. 

With this influence though, and growing friendship with President Trump, Musk has taken on a brand new role in the government outside of exciting audiences at rallies. He has been named Co-Head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The department is predicted to specialize in investigating organizations within the government and “trimming the fat” within their operations.

“I love what this new department is doing. I think the way they’re promoting it through the news and discussing what DOGE has stopped spending on is kind of controversial though. Sometimes the causes that money has been taken from are valid but what has come out recently about millions of dollars being spent on DEI plays and causes in other countries is not right,”says a CCHS student, who wishes to stay anonymous.

Most recently DOGE was attributed with a ruckus at the USAID Offices. USAID is an organization that directs relief for humanitarian crises in foreign countries.

In this instance, Musk argued on his platform X that “all DOGE did was check to see which federal organizations were violating the @POTUS executive orders the most. Turned out to be USAID, so that became our focus.” Musk has also commented that it is time for USAID to “die” and that “DOGE is the wood chipper for bureaucracy”.

Similarly, DOGE has been tasked with sniffing out violations of the executive orders created by the Trump administration. In a tweet, Musk retweeted a post stating that DOGE had already cancelled over 104 DEI contracts, totaling around 1 Billion dollars. 

Critics of Musk’s methods and DOGE have cited that his influence in politics is unearned and rather bought through donations.  “Before our very eyes, an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Supporters of Musk cite that because he was appointed in the same way Cabinet members are prior to being confirmed by the senate, that the claim he “bought his way into politics” is invalid.

“He shouldn’t be involved in politics because it increases tension between social classes and people in lower working classes aren’t seeing people similar to themselves that share the same beliefs running the country,” says CCHS student Bella Aguilera.  

Many young people take issue with the lack of representation for younger, more progressive individuals in politics currently. 

“Many Americans want someone more relatable and these billionaire ‘tech heads’ are not relatable. No one can relate to using 200 million to fund Trump’s campaign. It creates a divide between the wants of the American people and the choices people in government will support,” says CCHS Student Evan Dodds.

Though opinions of Musk are skewed both ways, with thousands of fans on one side and critics on the other, it’s impressive how he rose from a newly immigrated American to by far the richest man in the country.

His work with DOGE and his influence through the rest of the administration is something that will continue to be monitored as many of the department’s actions (and Musk’s explanations on X) are very controversial.