When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he laid off thousands of employees, stopped paying rent and auctioned off coffee makers and office chairs in hopes of a big turnaround.
Now the world鈥檚 richest man has brought the same slash-and-burn strategy to the federal government, and some people who experienced Musk's have a warning: Expect chaos, cuts driven by ideology as much as by cost concerns, intimidation and plenty of lawsuits.
Since assuming leadership of the , Musk has consolidated control over large swaths of the government with President 鈥檚 blessing, sidelined career officials, gained access to sensitive databases and invited a constitutional clash over .
Emily Horne, who was head of Twitter鈥檚 policy communications before joining the Biden administration, describes Musk鈥檚 modus operandi as: 鈥淭ake it over, ruthlessly purge anyone who he sees as opposition and crash operations to remake it in his worldview.鈥
It's unclear whether his push for 鈥渆xtremely hardcore鈥 changes at Twitter has paid off. Revenue at the company now called X has plunged, the number of users has dwindled and even Musk himself has expressed frustration at how long it is taking to turn around the company's finances.
鈥淚t isn鈥檛 working,鈥 said Ross Gerber, a minority stockholder at X who has written down his stake to zero and expects Musk to fail in Washington, too. 鈥淭he federal government is going to eat him up and spit him out.鈥
By some measures, X is still a success. The platform continues to attract hundreds of millions of users worldwide and has cemented Musk's political influence. But exactly how it is faring financially is difficult to say because the company is private.
The same week that Musk鈥檚 were threatening tens of thousands of federal workers, bankers who loaned him billions of dollars to buy Twitter were bracing for losses and trying to unload the loans on others. Musk has apparently given up hope of attracting key advertisers back to the platform and has sued some of them.
Examples of budget-minded business leaders who brought their skills to government work abound, but Musk made clear 鈥 at both Twitter and DOGE 鈥 that his priorities go beyond efficiency into .
Long before fighting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts became a centerpiece of Trump鈥檚 third presidential campaign, Musk eliminated Twitter鈥檚 DEI initiatives and the people administering them.
鈥淭he culture of Twitter died,鈥 said former employee Theodora Skeadas, whose job was cut in the weeks after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022. 鈥淔or a lot of these agencies and organizations, that may be in their future.鈥
Another tactic that Musk appears to be bringing to the government: 鈥減erformances of loyalty.鈥
That is how former Twitter executive Rumman Chowdhury describes Musk's drive to make workers prove the value of their work in a way she says demonstrated fealty. For instance, engineers were told to print out code then line up to have an inexperienced engineer evaluate it.
鈥淚t's a fear and intimidation tactic,鈥 Chowdhury said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 the best leadership style long term, as demonstrated by how abysmal Twitter/X is doing.鈥
Musk later sought to rehire some of the engineers . His instinct to threaten also backfired with advertisers.
Within months of , advertising revenue plunged by half as brands fled X over fears he was loosening content moderation too much. But instead of courting the companies, Musk took to X threatening to 鈥渢hermonuclear name & shame鈥 them for leaving his platform. Later at a conference, he used an expletive and urged them, 鈥淒on鈥檛 advertise.鈥
鈥淭alk about shooting yourself in the foot,鈥 said ad consultant Tom Hespos of Abydos Media, who told his clients at that point to avoid even posting on X because it could damage their brand. 鈥淭hat is probably the worst comment he could have made.鈥
In August, Musk doubled down Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and several other companies that had dropped Twitter, accusing them of engaging in an 鈥渋llegal boycott.鈥 On Saturday, he added more companies to the lawsuit, including Lego, Shell International, Tyson Foods, Nestle and Colgate-Palmolive.
His with more than 2,000 former Twitter workers are also a sign of the kind of court fights that could await the government. A federal judge on Thursday a midnight deadline the same day for government workers to accept Musk's 鈥渄eferred resignation offer鈥 promising pay through September without having to work.
The email announcing the offer was titled 鈥淔ork in the Road,鈥 echoing a similar email Musk sent to the Twitter workforce in 2022.
More than two years later, Musk's X is still 鈥渟pending an insane amount of money鈥 defending against allegations by former Twitter employees that they are owed money, said lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represents hundreds of the workers. She said it would have been cheaper just to pay them what they were owed.
鈥淚f that is the way decision making is being made for the federal government, I鈥檓 very concerned about the finances of the federal government,鈥 she said.
Neither X nor DOGE responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Along with and and office furniture, Musk鈥檚 extreme cost-cutting strategy at Twitter included . Landlords of the social media company鈥檚 headquarters in San Francisco as well as its British offices took the company to court for .
The British case settled for an undisclosed sum. The San Francisco case was dismissed last year; it鈥檚 not clear if a settlement was paid.
Musk has also brought one of X's real estate executives over to the government.
Even if the X cuts were an unmitigated success, it鈥檚 unclear whether the same tactics would work for cutting costs and still delivering services at government agencies.
Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan, said Musk and Trump are arrogating spending power that belongs to Congress, not the executive branch, and he predicts lawsuits over the moves will hamstring their efforts.
鈥淎ll this is of dubious legality, and that鈥檚 before you get to the civil service protections,鈥 Bagley said, referring to federal workforce rules preventing layoffs for political purposes. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to see a lot of bombast and rhetoric, but I suspect it鈥檚 going to yield fewer things on the ground.鈥
A few in Musk's orbit have tried to warn him against moving too rashly, including prominent tech investor Paul Graham, who in a recent X exchange asked Musk to 鈥渢ake your time and do it carefully.鈥
The government "isn鈥檛 just a company. Companies are born and die within the system, and it鈥檚 OK. But this is the system itself we鈥檙e talking about here.鈥
Minority X stock owner Gerber, CEO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, praises Musk for instilling a sense of belonging to the 鈥渟pecial forces of business鈥 at his companies. But he thinks Musk will fail in Washington.
"The idea that you can fire all these people doesn鈥檛 work," he said. 鈥淲e're about to see an epic battle.鈥
