Do you hate Elon Musk? If you do, you’re certainly not alone. Musk has become the poster boy for resentment among opponents of the Trump administration.
Yet some wonder: Why all the hate?
Few people would deny that Musk is one of the most brilliant humans — let alone Americans — ever to walk the earth. His companies are preparing to send people to Mars, rescuing astronauts from space, building electric vehicles, solving neurological diseases with computer chips, developing robots and advanced technology, linking cities together and (admit it) providing a free speech forum with all the expected vitriol.
He’s worth hundreds of billions, but he sleeps on factory floors and friends’ sofas. He manages more tasks, tackles more problems and deals with more issues in a day than most of us could handle in a lifetime.
And yet people hate him. They burn the cars his company makes and the dealerships that sell them. They protest him. They hurl such insults as “toxic” and “Nazi.” Why?
For any business professional like myself — or any other manager who must lead people in an organization — it’s important to understand the reasons. Here are three.
For starters, he’s obscenely arrogant. Musk says things like “Vacations will kill you,” and “If you don’t improve, your resignation will be accepted,” and “It’s a real weakness to want to be liked, a real weakness. I do not have that.”
He challenges the media and his opponents with a cavalier attitude and a look of superior boredom. He sends emails to federal employees as if they were his employees. He views his rivals with undisguised contempt. Sure, you can write this off to his self-declared autism. But that affliction barely masks his disdain for people who are less intelligent than him (pretty much everyone of us) and who oppose his methods. It is clear that he has no time for idiots.
He’s also callous. For a man whose biggest accomplishments require patience, attention to detail and meticulous planning, it’s interesting that Musk’s management style is well, crash and burn. He has quickly barreled into our government’s secure spaces and demanded access to confidential data. He makes sweeping statements about fraud, waste and inefficiencies of federal programs, agencies and employees.
He urges the termination of wide swaths of people — some who probably deserve it, and many other competent employees who have become collateral damage. He doesn’t seem to care about anything except hitting that $1 trillion goal in annual savings that he has repeatedly promised — Heaven help anyone who gets in his way.
He is also a teacher’s pet. President Trump loves him. He includes him in press conferences and Cabinet meetings. They hang together at Mar-a-Lago. Musk wears MAGA hats and lets his children romp and roll as they board Air Force One with the most powerful man in the world.
People hate a teacher’s pet. They hate favoritism. They hate people who suck up to the boss. And they hate the boss who allows this to happen.
Of course, Musk could be doing things differently. He could be more empathetic and patient with those who have differing points of view. He could try to be less smug in his responses, so that he’s not viewed as talking down to people every time he offers an opinion. He could take a breath and roll out his cutbacks and spending freezes and contract terminations with a bit more deliberation and due diligence. He could publicly distance himself from his boss unless absolutely necessary, quietly communicate his findings to Cabinet members and avoid talking to the press. He could limit his posts on X to whether or not Parker Posey deserves an Emmy for her performance on White Lotus (she does).
But Musk won’t do any of these things. He’ll say he’s doing what he’s doing for the greater good of mankind. He’s not concerned with the loss of shareholder value in his companies, let alone his reputation. He’s not bothered with the countless death threats he receives. He is indifferent to whether or not people like him. Or so he says.
Is this the right management style for any leader? Musk certainly has many devoted employees. He also has countless fans and supporters — including Trump — who love what he does and says.
Being a leader means accomplishing goals, and Musk has some pretty lofty ones. This is the way he’s going about accomplishing them. This is his style.
You can hate him for that. I don’t.
Gene Marks is founder of The Marks Group, a small-business consulting firm.
