Readers respond to Question of the Week: Musk given excess power by Trump?

Trump-Musk team

The U.S. spends $2 trillion more than it makes every year. President Trump is correct in finding ways this country can reduce its expenses.

Having someone like Elon Musk, who has successfully built his businesses, put his experience to work is beneficial. Musk can only recommend. It is up to the secretaries to carry out those recommendations. Showing Musk holding a chainsaw may show a little too much aggressiveness. This could have been handled smoother over a period of time. But such actions in the commercial world get little attention. In today’s paper you ran a story on Starbucks cutting 1,100 jobs. Joann closing all stores. How many other companies had layoffs? Where are all the Democrats protesting for those people? Musk is simply bringing corporate America’s approach to business to the government. It should have happened decades ago. Ask the average person. Would you pay someone to do nothing? These are your tax dollars being spent.

— Richard Dore, Lomita

Elon Musk

I do not think that “Move fast and break things” is the right way to run the government.

Elon Musk, the self-anointed arbiter of free speech and innovation, has moved beyond reckless corporate empire-building and is now actively eroding the very foundations of our federal government. Through his unchecked influence on national security infrastructure, his blatant defiance of regulatory oversight, and his open contempt for democratic institutions, Musk has positioned himself as an unelected power broker with more sway over public policy than those actually elected to govern. The federal government exists to serve the people, not the petulant egos of tech moguls. If our elected officials don’t assert control soon, Musk’s corrosive influence will leave them as little more than footnotes in his personal vanity project.

— Alexis Sheehy, Redondo Beach

Definitely, a yes

The public and market reaction to this can be seen in the recent performance of Tesla stock, down 40% from its post-election high. Tesla is the new Bud Light, but rather than “go woke, go broke” it is “go hard to the right, and say goodnight.”

— Michael E. Pick, Pasadena