The Last Thing America Needs Is More Elon Musk
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pete Hegseth has announced that Elon Musk will return to working in the Trump administration. In his new role, he will be advising the Pentagon on the “future of war.”
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:
“The last thing our country needs is Elon Musk’s grubby hands further damaging our government. After the colossal and deadly failure that was DOGE, it is plainly obvious that Elon Musk is a danger to the public interest and a threat to any functional democracy.
“Pete Hegseth’s appointment of Musk, along with Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, to devise Pentagon strategy on ‘the future of war’ is more than just the everyday conflicts of interest that pervade the Pentagon. It is, in effect, a delegation of authority over strategy and procurement to two Tech Bro leaders of giant military contractors.
“The appointments are an invitation for recommendations to spend even more money on more dangerous weapons that will make the U.S. and the world less safe.
“Neither Musk, nor Luckey, nor Newt Gingrich (the third person Hegseth named to helm the new war planning project) should have anything to do with planning the future of the Pentagon.”
For more information on Elon Musk’s extensive conflicts of interest, see Public Citizen’s report from May 2025, which found that Musk has conflicts of interest at over 70 percent of agencies targeted by DOGE (including the Pentagon).