In a 2018 essay, The Atlantic's Adam Serwer attempted to make sense of the political chaos unfolding roughly a year and a half into president Donald Trump's first term.His argument, that "cruelty is the point," became a common catchphrase among Trump critics, denoting his politics of demonization and exclusion, which seemed to be about intentionally inflicting pain. Serwer made the case that cruelty was central to the Republican Party, which incentivized fear and vindictiveness.Serwer's analysis now feels more relevant than ever following Trump's return to the White House.And it's not just Trump, who has taken a far more hands-off approach this time around. His top hatchet man, White House advisor and multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk, has seemingly made it his personal mission to pick up where Trump left off sowing confusion, uncertainty, and doubt every step of the way.His Department of Government Efficiency which confusingly isn't actually being led by him,the White House admitted this week has torn through numerous federal government departments, likely breaking various laws in the process, and leaving pure mayhem in its wake.Federal workers have had to contend with some seriously mixed messages, to put it lightly. Even Trump had to step in this week after Musk's DOGE team of underqualified kids emailed virtuallyall federal workers, demanding that they summarize what they did over the past week or be fired if they refused.DOGE has also attempted to fire thousands of government workers, many of whom had to be reinstated not long after to keep the US nuclear weapons stockpile from falling apart or to appease furious medical device industry lobbyists following job cuts at the Food and Drug Administration.Musk promised transparency during the process, but that was a bald-faced lie. Instead of an orderly process, the cuts have been executed as a series of sucker punches that leave government workers unsure whether they'll still have a job, scientists and doctors unclear whether they'll still have funding, and business owners guessing at what regulation they'll have to deal with under the new administration.And that's without getting into Musk's gutting of the United States' international aid program, which will unquestionably lead to countless deaths from disease and starvation.The baffling level of mismanagement raises fundamental questions about Musk's motives. Is he really trying to streamline the government, or is he an angry divorced man, struggling to deliver on his business promises, who's now trying to inflict as much pain as possible on the widest group he can?Musk has done little to hide his attempts to reemploy the playbook he used after acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. He's used the same "Fork in the Road" resignation offer letter to coerce federal government employees into resigning, as NPR points out. His more recent "What did you do last week?" email also closely resembles a letter he sent to Twitter employees (many of whom have since scored a legal victory after suing the company over illegally denying them severance.)Is Musk trying to take revenge on a government that has held him and his business accountable? His DOGE has singled out government agencies that once investigated the likes of Tesla and SpaceX, demonstrating his unabashed willingness to serve his own bottom line. And that's despite his businesses collecting tens of billions of dollars in government contracts over the last two decades.Musk has long held a reputation for being a "horrible boss" who incessantly cracks the whip, forces his workers to literally sleep on the floor at the office, and threatens them with being fired if they don't fall in line."All of this just seems to further solidify Musks public image as a kind of cultural cliche of like the absolute, ultimate terrible boss," MSNBC host Chris Hayes said during a Tuesday broadcast, referring to the "What did you do last week?" email. "Just the worst boss. Everyones had a bad boss in their life, this guy is the worst of them."Judging by X-formerly-Twitter's ultimate fate the company has wiped out 80 percent of its value after Musk alienated advertisers and ditched content moderation in its entirety it's a destructive approach that's unlikely to turn the federal government into a leaner but still effective version of itself.Beyond triggering a surge in anti-Musk sentiment and mass protests at Tesla dealerships across the world, Musk's trampling has resulted in a growing number of lawsuits from worker unions and attorneys general, which will likely take years to move through the judicial system.And the Trump administration's major culling of the government is only getting started. The Office of Personnel Management has sent out a memo notifying that agencies have until mid-March to come up with "Agency Reorganization Plans," which are expected to result in even more mass firings.Add it all up, and it's hard to believe anything except the obvious: that Musk is rotten to the core, a damaged man with untold power who's now dead set on inflicting as much suffering on others as he can.Share This Article