The meteoric rise of Elon Musk has been punctuated by bouts of frenetic energy, which usually come over him when he takes on a new challenge. Musk’s biographer, former TIME editor Walter Isaacson, has described these periods as “demon mode,” and they have led Musk to some of his greatest conquests, like his reinvention of electric cars at Tesla, his takeover of Twitter, or his push into the cosmos with SpaceX, his rocket company.
After spending nearly $290 million in 2024 to help elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, Musk has applied this same energy to the task of dismantling the federal bureaucracy. In the name of efficiency, he has fired thousands of workers at some government agencies while attempting to close down others entirely. Despite the growing public backlash, Trump has applauded the effort. This time, Musk’s demon mode has destroyed far more than it’s created. And that seems to be the point.
Shuster is a TIME senior correspondent