Elon is Still in; Vivek is Out

I hate to say I told you so (actually, I kind of enjoy saying that), but two brilliant, large ego and successful men have discovered that sharing the top job is not so easy. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are both men accustomed to being fully in charge and have earned the right to be called the “top dog.”

So what are the rumors? Essentially, Ramaswamy apparently shot himself in the foot—twice. One mistake was his support of the H-1B program. Although both Ramaswamy and Musk supported the program, they had distinctly different ways to describe their perceptions:

Department of Government Efficiency co-chairs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have come out in support of the program. Ramaswamy has argued that the US does ‘not produce the best engineers,’ while Musk claimed there is ‘a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent’ in America.

Somehow, I think some educators and engineers might have taken Ramaswamy’s comment personally. And plenty of people were criticizing the program, rightly or not.

Ramaswamy’s second error was taking a shot at American workers and corporations:

In late December, Ramaswamy criticized American culture, saying that tech companies hire foreign workers in part because of a mindset in the country that has ‘venerated mediocrity over excellence.’

This comment basically attacked the country. When you’re about to upend the federal bureaucracy, insulting the employees and citizens is probably not the best tack.

To complicate things (or maybe to simplify the decision about Ramaswamy and DOGE), Ramaswamy lost out on the appointment for the senate position that JD Vance had vacated. Governor Mike DeWine had already chosen Lt. Gov. Jon Husted for that position; Ramaswamy settled for running for governor, along with two other candidates.

Although Trump transition spokesperson Anna Kelly praised Ramaswamy for the work he had done in creating DOGE, she stated that his plan to run for governor “requires him to remain outside of DOGE based on the structure that we announced today.” She didn't elaborate.

Other people made observations that Ramaswamy hadn’t been actively working with DOGE since December. And he’d experienced some tensions with Musk and some of Musk's staff; much of this information comes from anonymous sources.

Still, I favor the practical assessment that you can’t have two kings ruling the realm. DOGE is going to encounter enough resistance without having to negotiate conflicts with its two leaders.

I wish Ramaswamy well in his run for the Ohio governor. And wish Musk the best on his own.