Presidents shouldn't put people with drug problems in charge of our government

Nixon didn't, Trump did

Photo: National Archives/Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Join me in a little alternative history. One of the most popular and recognizable men in the world meets with the President. He asks for a role with the government, though he seems somewhat unstable. He is a habitual drug user. He details conspiracy theories about attacks on America.

If you are the President, what do you do?

If you are Richard Nixon, you take a picture, give the guy a fake title that makes him happy, and send him on his way.

If you are Donald Trump, you put the guy in charge of the federal government.

In December of 1970, Elvis swung by the White House. In a letter to Nixon before the meeting, Elvis wrote:

So I wish not to be given a title or an appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large and I will help out by doing it my way through my communications with people of all ages. First and foremost, I am an entertainer, but all I need is the Federal credentials…I will be here for as long as long as it takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent. I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good.

At the meeting, Elvis rambled in “a very emotional manner” according to aides, emphasizing that he “was with the President” and that something needed to be done about the Beatles smuggling anti-American messaging into popular culture. (Maybe he would have called it a mind virus!)

There are some differences between Musk and Elvis. Elvis did not want an official position and told Nixon he wanted to keep the arrangement quiet. He just wanted that badge. But much like Musk’s entry into government, Elvis was also operating out of self-interest. His wife Priscilla Presley wrote that:

With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished.

Law enforcement gave Elvis an “honorary” badge. A grown man trading his dignity for a pretend badge. Well, at least Elvis wanted to keep it secret. Unlike this guy.

Now, in my alternate history, Nixon would have given Elvis a real badge, and the King would have engaged in some amazing Bad Lieutenant-style shenanigans as a narcotics officer who consumes the contents of his drug busts.

Even if this reality came to be, the damage would have been pretty limited.

By contrast, Trump handed the keys to your government to a guy who appears to have a serious drug problem.

New reporting in the New York Times documents this.

Musk is a habitual user of ketamine to the point that he has told others it is causing bladder issues, a signal of chronic use. The Times notes that:

He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall…Mr. Musk had been using ketamine often, sometimes daily, and mixing it with other drugs, according to people familiar with his consumption. The line between medical use and recreation was blurry, troubling some people close to him…The drug has psychedelic properties and can cause dissociation from reality.

The Times notes that Musk has behaved erratically, even at public and media events. They give his Nazi salute as an example. (You will never guess who was also high when doing Nazi salutes).

In the White House, Musk has gotten into shouting matches with Cabinet officials. He has not always been coherent when explaining what he is up to.

When asked about the Times story in his farewell event at the White House¹ Musk, who had a black eye he said was the result of asking his son to punch him in the face, complained about the Times coverage about Russia and said “lets move on.”

Yes, I know that there are differences between Musk and Elvis. Elvis made great music and had genuine charisma. Musk has real achievements in running large organizations. Thats the case for Musk being given a big role in government

The case against handing Musk control of government was also pretty strong however. The Twitter model of downsizing that Musk promised to bring to government was always doomed to failed, reflecting ignorance of how federal spending actually works. And Elvis did not have a bunch of conflicts of interest with the federal government that Musk did! While both had drug problems, and were prone to conspiracy theories, social media did not exist for Elvis.

It’s been clear for some years now that Musk’s brain has been cooked by the online world.

If we are just learning the extent of Musk’s drug use, his addiction to social media and the damage that it has done has been plain for years. It is worth reading this essay from Sam Harris, a longtime friend of Musk, about his transformation:

I have been quite amazed at Elon’s evolution, both as a man and as an avatar of chaos. The friend I remember did not seem to hunger for public attention. But his engagement with Twitter/X transformed him—to a degree seldom seen outside of Marvel movies or Greek mythology. If Elon is still the man I knew, I can only conclude that I never really knew him…Everyone close to Elon must recognize how unethical he has become, and yet they remain silent. Their complicity is understandable, but it is depressing all the same…Any dispassionate observer of Elon’s behavior on Twitter/X can see that there is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality. There is simply no excuse for a person with his talents, resources, and opportunities to create so much pointless noise.

Notably, the piece was published before Musk took his role at DOGE. Harris underlines that what he saw should have been more than apparent to those in Musk’s orbit. The problem is, the Trump administration is full of people who are fundamentally disconnected from reality, who saw Musk as a powerful avatar and enabler of the radical beliefs that they shared.

There are many things that are worrisome here:

Musk’s drug and social media consumption disconnect him from reality, feeding what appears to be an underlying tendency towards paranoia and conspiracy theories. The interaction effect between the two appear to be deeply unhealthy for him. But they are also deeply bad for everyone else since he is making literal life-or-death decisions.

For example, the most persuasive reason why Musk decided to eliminate USAID appears to be that he believed social media conspiracy theories that it was full of criminals. And so now USAID no longer exists, and credible estimates suggest that 300,000 people have died as a result, two-thirds of them children.

Musk is not a rational actor, and rationality is a pretty basic value for managing public services. I don’t know how much of this is the drugs, the media bubble he has created, or underlying personality issues, but it is clear a) it has gotten worse, and b) he has no business making decisions that affect the lives of others.

Musk has been enabled. Harris asks why those around Musk won’t acknowledge the problems and the obvious answer is that it is not in their interests to do so. Musk is a source of money and power for his friends, and a threat to his enemies. He was Trump’s biggest funder, and turned X into a Republican propaganda machine. Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor, was supposed to launch a media show on X until he asked Musk about his drug use, and Musk killed the deal. Musk sues critics like Media Matters to bankrupt them, and Trump’s government has joined in the attacks.

Musk remains a government contractor, but the government is now full of people who are aligned with him, and have shown a willingness to fire uncooperative employees. The Times reported that as a contractor, Musk is reported to take drug tests, but he is warned of those by government officials, which seems like an extraordinary scandal. There seems to be no accountability.

This is actually worse than Watergate. Currently Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson are flogging a book about the big cover-up regarding Biden’s mental capacities. In another Nixon tie-in, Tapper says the cover-up was worse than Watergate. You know, the cover-up of the topic that got wall-to-wall media coverage last year, and was a central issue in the presidential campaign. The cover-up that did not stop the Democratic Party from dumping Biden?

Anyway, one basic problem with their Tapper/Thompson pitch is that Biden was an ineffective advocate for his campaign, but he was mostly an effective President, by which I mean he used his office in a rational and often consequential ways to achieve his policy goals. It is very difficult to point to any major decision Biden made and argue that it was the result of his declining mental state.

By contrast, the incumbent President is a voluble and available media presence, who makes terrible policy decisions in an erratic fashion, and then lies about it. Is that better? And Trump handed control of our government to a man who is also engaged in erratic, illegal and damaging decisions in ways that hurt federal employees and the public. Maybe Tapper will release a book about this next year, but maybe their reference point of Nixon era cover-ups (which were genuinely bad!) need to be updated with what Trump and Musk are up to.

The media is helping Musk’s back to business PR campaign. If you have read anything about Musk’s departure, you have come across some version of this story: A bruised Elon Musk retreats from politics, will now get back to business.

I mean, it’s not subtle!

Musk’s biographer/sanewasher Walter Isaacson was wheeled out on CNBC just in case you did not get the message.

You don’t really see this level of consistency in coverage without a deliberate PR campaign, where Musk gives interviews to some friendly reporters who are pitched on a story. And honestly, it is pretty appalling.

There has never been more evidence that Elon Musk has done extraordinary damage to ordinary people while ignoring massive conflicts of interests. I am glad he is out of government, to be sure. But spare me the fawning profiles of his business genius at this moment. Some of the coverage notes that DOGE was less than successful, and did not achieve its goals, but rarely focuses on the harm caused.

If you are unable to bring accountability to the richest man in the world fucking up our government, then you are a PR flack, not a journalist. Kudos to Michelle Goldberg for offering some moral clarity:

If there were justice in the world, Musk would never be able to repair his reputation, at least not without devoting the bulk of his fortune to easing the misery he’s engendered. Musk’s sojourn in government has revealed severe flaws in his character — a blithe, dehumanizing cruelty, and a deadly incuriosity. This should shape how he’s seen for the rest of his public life.

---

Anyway, this started as a piece about Elvis and Nixon and sort of got diverted. The important thing to remember is that Nixon, who claimed he could impound Congressional money and said he was not a crook, got impeached because even his own party realized he was a crook. And even Nixon had enough good judgment not to hand the keys to the government over to someone manifestly unfit for the job.

We used to be a country. A proper country.

1. Not really a farewell as it turns out. Trump said Musk was “not really leaving” and Musk said he would continue to provide advice. Since Musk’s official role was that of Presidential advisor, maybe little will change. And since DOGE is effectively a leaderless network, Musk will likely to continue to remain the hub in the short run at least. Federal employees say DOGE work is not slowing down.