Chris Hayes seemed to enjoy himself on Thursday’s episode of “All In” when he kicked things off by recounting all the ways Elon Musk’s tenure in the Donald Trump administration was “an unmitigated, abject failure.”
Hayes ticked off during the opening segment the myriad ways he believes Musk failed, but ultimately it really came down to how unlikable he is. Even swing state voters “would really much rather he just go away,” Hayes said.
“To put the news in the parlance of SpaceX, it seems, Elon Musk’s career as co-president to Donald Trump has had a bit of a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” Hayes began, referencing the face-saving euphemism Musk’s company SpaceX uses for whenever one of its rocket launches fails.
“Technically, it was kind of scheduled,” the MSNBC host continued. “His DOGE campaign was always billed as temporary, but less than six months into this administration, the man who came in like some kind of MAGA rock star who was jumping around at Trump rallies, appeared in every cabinet meeting — seemed to be running the cabinet meetings — spoke to adoring crowds at CPAC, is now unceremoniously slinking out the side door.”
Hayes explained that “Musk’s stint in government has been an unmitigated abject failure, any way you look on it, on the substance, it’s just been wildly destructive and also volatile.” He then ran down a fairly comprehensive list of said destruction, continuing, “Musk did enormous substantive damage, both to our own country, to other people, some of the most vulnerable abroad, that’s going to be hard to repair, but even by his own standards, because I don’t think he cares about that, his so-called cost saving efficiency program, DOGE, was a total failure as well.”
At this point Hayes explained how in addition to doing untold damage to the country, DOGE also didn’t end up saving the money it promised. And more than that, Musk himself became extremely unpopular. That unpopularity, Hayes noted, extended even into the Trump administration.
“He was wholesale rejected by about everyone,” Hayes said. “We’ve seen report after report after report that everyone simply couldn’t stand the guy. Doesn’t matter how rich he is.
“‘No one likes the guy’ might be the best summation of Musk’s forays into American politics I’ve encountered,” Hayes added, noting how this even had political effects, such as the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in which the Democratic-endorsed candidate beat Musk’s chosen candidate by 10 points, after which it appears state voters were particularly put off by Musk himself.
“Voters everywhere don’t like him,” Hayes continued, noting that “Musk’s intrusion into national politics has also had very real financial consequences for his companies, and he’s lost billions of dollars, at least sort of on paper. Since he spent more than $70 million to get Trump elected last year, Tesla sales, the sort of crown jewel company of his, are down huge, especially in Europe, with a crash of nearly 50% year over year last month, because Musk has absolutely poisoned the brand with his own toxic reputation here in the States.”
“His tenure in Washington was a complete failure, substantively and politically, and to his own reputation and to his own companies. He got high on his own supply. He convinced himself, because he’s worth a lot of money, that everyone loves him, that the American public would fall in love with his antics. And it turns out they would really much rather he just go away,” Hayes concluded.
You can watch the whole segment, which also includes a guest discussion of the matter, below:
