Elon Musk’s primary companies, SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company and Neuralink all have excellent relationships with the respective regulators over them, with the U.S. Military, and with the State/City/Local governments in whose jurisdictions they operate.
The recent groundswell of media attacks, smear jobs, actual misinformation and paint-in-the-worst-light news pieces flooding out against Elon are all ultimately aimed at souring public opinion against Musk. This, if achieved, would give the Executive Branch of the Biden Administration and some in Congress the necessary cover, even the seeming faux mandate, to then intervene within the regulators and enforcement agencies to empower subdivisions or factions of them to go after him through his companies.
Even if they can't ever get as far as locking him up for something, or divesting Musk of ownership control over his companies, and even if they can't make him capitulate into toeing the Current Thing line - their ultimate win conditions - if they can inflict years of pain and suffering, years of operational distraction, years of serious loss of revenue and opportunity, that would be victory enough for them.
Unfortunately for them, Elon's more savvy and established than he's ever been before. Even as a longtime observer and supporter myself, I would sincerely worry about the Elon of 5-10 years ago’s ability to manage this newer political dimension of opposition. But he has developed greatly as a person and as a Player in the Game over the past half-decade or so. His popularity and “name ID” as the politicos say has expanded exponentially, despite already being one of the most well-known CEOs in the world since the turn of the century. As a function of his personality and the scrutiny he's always under, Musk is also remarkably clean legally, however much some might dislike him and how he operates.
As mentioned at the start, another factor is that Musk and his deep bench of executives have wide-ranging support and connections at the operational levels of the various manifestations of the U.S. government. For the most part, the bodies that would actually have the teeth to damage his empire clearly consider his corporations and staff valuable partners who come through on important projects. And it's understood that its Elon's leadership that continues to guide and sustain those machines. The U.S.'s fractious and fractal bureaucracy and jurisdictional independence is a great design feature here. Las Vegas won't stop working with The Boring Company because the Executive Branch in D.C. is mad. The Department of Defense won't reject the Starshield program because some senators hate Musk.
Finally, having X (formerly known as Twitter) to defend yourself with; having the very platform capable of amplifying the slander against you and yours to dangerous levels be the literal organic home turf of your OG fans and defenders and recent converts to your fandom... Every other billionaire with a mere news outlet in his pocket must be unspeakably jealous.
Related Links:
"NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED: Elon Musk is the latest scapegoat for Ukraine’s failing counteroffensive.
Appearing at the @allinsummit yesterday, @elonmusk addressed the controversy that erupted over the past week when an excerpt from @WalterIsaacson's new biography of him was released...." ~ https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1701628430016716957
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Justice Department Sues SpaceX for Discriminating Against Asylees and Refugees in Hiring
SpaceX hired only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, from September 2018 to September 2020.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-spacex-discriminating-against-asylees-and-refugees-hiring
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX sues feds, claiming DOJ case over refugees is unconstitutional
https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/elon-musks-spacex-sues-feds-over-doj-case-on-refugees/
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Justice Department Probe Scrutinizes Alleged Elon Musk Perks at Tesla Going Back Years
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/justice-department-probe-scrutinizes-elon-musk-perks-at-tesla-going-back-years/ar-AA1gXqQC
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