Elon Musk told several people that he had slept at the headquarters of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in Washington, DC, Wired learned that he was working to exercise control over the federal government. Doge is based on the Eisenhower Executive Office building, just a short distance from the White House.
During an exclusive black tie dinner hosted by the Alfalfa Club last week, Musk told employees that he was even invited to spend the night in the White House himself in the Lincoln bedroom.
The news shows how deep Musk embedded himself in President Donald Trump’s orbit and how carefully he followed his proven playbook of Tesla and Twitter (now X).
During busy periods in Tesla, Musk was known for sleeping on the factory floor. “It was my primary home,” he claimed during an interview with Ron Baron in 2022. He said the move was strategic because he wanted employees to see him. “It’s important because if the team thinks their leader is somewhere, he drank Mai Tais on a tropical island, which I definitely could do … Since the team could see me sleep on the floor during shift change, they Know that I was there, and it made a big difference, they gave it all. ‘
The vision of a leader who drinks cocktails on a tropical island came up again after Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder in the spring of 2022. In SMS messages to his friend, podcaster and angel investor Jason Calacanis said that Twitter’s newly appointed CEO, Para Agrawal, on a 10 -day holiday in Hawaii. At the time, Musk played with the idea of joining Twitter’s board, but became increasingly frustrated with Agrawal. He doubts whether the two can work together.
“VAT, Parag is still on a ten -day holiday in Hawaii,” Musk told Calacanis. “No reason to cut it short … In your first tour as CEO (!!!),” Calcanis replies, presumably with a tip of sarcasm. “Don’t he be in a war room right now?!?” Musk then said, “Do the occasional zoom calls while drinking fruity cocktails during the Four Seasons score?” (The messages were later revealed as part of the process of discovery in a lawsuit between Musk and Twitter).
Eventually, Musk decided that he couldn’t save Twitter with Agrawal, and he bought the company.
After the acquisition was completed, Musk started sleeping at the Twitter offices in San Francisco. Employees saw him walking on the floor late at night and being escorted to the bathroom by his security guards. He even tried to have a bathroom installed next to his office so he didn’t have to pull across the floor during his stay.
Musk’s Lieutenant Steve Davis, CEO of the Boring Company, who allegedly recruited staff to work at Doge, also temporarily moved to Twitter HQ with his wife and newborn baby.
Earlier this week, the US Office of Staff Management, which has already been piled up with Musk Lackeys, sent Federal workers titled ‘A Fork in the Road’.
“The federal workforce must consist of employees who are reliable, loyal, reliable and who strive for excellence in their daily work,” the e -mail states. It ordered employees to return to the office for five days a week, and commit them to a culture of excellence, or to resign effectively and continue to receive benefits and pay through September.
The memo reflects a note that Musk sent to Twitter staff shortly after buying the company. In the note, sent on November 16, 2022, Musk told staff members they would have to commit to working long, intense hours to realize his new vision for the company – otherwise they should resign. “In the future, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will have to be extraordinarily hardcore,” he wrote. ‘This will mean that long hours work with high intensity. Only exceptional achievement will make a pass degree. “