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June 2, 2025

Musk retreats — we made him do it. It matters.

I’ve been searching for a metaphor to grasp the meaning of Elon Musk’s departure from DOGE. The closest I can come to is when a friend in an abusive relationship makes a significant break from their partner, like moving out, but hasn’t completely ended the relationship.

As a friend, you know all is not well. The threat of violence remains. The relationship is still toxic and dangerous. Still, you applaud the move. You don’t feed your friend’s aching feeling of disempowerment and loss — you feed the courage, the agency, and the strength to keep going.

So it’s in that spirit, that I want us to — if we can handle it — take a moment to acknowledge, even celebrate, our collective achievement of a massive, unplanned retreat by the richest person on the planet.

One of the worst things we could do in this moment is miss the significance that the movement forced a major retreat. Yes, it’s not everything — but if we can only cheer when it’s everything, we’re going to live sad lives.

No, it was not because of the 130 days limit. Plans had already been made to blow past that. And sure, Trump will spin this — but we have to stop ourselves from thinking that everything they do is masterminded. Our side can also be relentless, brilliant, courageous, and strategic.

Workers ignoring Musk orders. Institutional resistance to DOGE. Tesla Takedown. Pension letters. Tesla boycotts. All these beat back the salesmanship of Donald Trump hawking Teslas on the White House lawn and the richest man attempting to insulate himself from the people’s will.

This is a collective victory. And I know, it’s hard to hold any kind of victory in dire times of great loss, but trench warfare tells us that before you can fully stop a thing, you have to slow it down. This is a moment for us to mark a significant slowing.

A Critical Retreat, Not a Total Withdrawal

Musk’s 130-day tenure at DOGE was characterized by aggressive cruelty. He eliminated somewhere between 200,000 to 260,000 federal positions through mass firings, buyouts, and early retirements. He didn’t achieve his stated goal of $2 trillion in savings. His lying, inflated website doesn’t even claim 8% of that — and actual verifiable numbers are closer to 0.8% of that alleged goal. The most casual look at his cutting at his cutting 31% of tax auditors at the IRS reveals the goal isn’t savings: it’s enriching himself and displacing democracy.Predictably the Republican budget is set to explode deficit spending and extract more money from all but the elite richest people in this country.

But he did manage to traumatize people in government and much of the country.

President Trump is not a reliable source of information — so it’s unwise to take it too literally when he says, “Elon’s really not leaving.” To be sure, the abusive relationship isn’t likely over.

But the relationship has transformed starkly. After months of sycophant behavior, the past week Musk has repeatedly attacked Trump policy — a violation of the social norms of Trump’s mob loyalty. Musk expressed “disappointment” about Trump’s spending bill. He has apparently withheld $100 million of pledged donations to Republican campaigns. He blasted Trump’s Middle East sweetheart deals that gave preference for Musk’s AI competitor Sam Altman’s. These open attacks are new and part of a significant growing political distance.

While it’s reasonable to doubt how far Musk is leaving, it’s notable that a lot of key players in Elon Musk’s team are leaving the White House, too. Steve Davis, Musk’s long-time confidant and internal coordinator, packed his bags. A recent fired DOGE staffer Sahil Lavingia told WIRED Magazine, “Steven was the only person who was across everything” — leaving a massive hole in DOGE’s coordination. Katie Miller, the wife of the anti-immigrant crusader Stephen Miller, is following Musk out of the White House. She was another critical node, the person who others trusted with the unenviably task of giving Musk bad news.

On top of all of this, the NY Times reports about Musk’s increased drug use, Steve Bannon explains Musk’s black-eye was from a physical altercation with Trump’s people (Scott Bessent), and an even more seedy allegations of the two Millers and Musk’s polyamorous relationship gone awry — a possible explanation of Katie Miller’s joining Musk’s departure. Musk is leaving with many new enemies inside the White House.

Still, the DOGE coup is not over. It remains very active and its abuses continue. WIRED Magazine, which continues to track DOGE better than any other major news source, noted DOGE now retains tons of private information is attempting to stitch them together, and desires to keep expanding its influence among government institutions. They quoted an IT specialist at USDA saying, “This doesn’t sound like a group that is going away, it sounds like one that’s digging in like a parasite.”

DOGE has vigor and loyalty. But, at the same time, they report uncertainty within their ranks about who will hold the team together and drive their collective efforts.

Uncertainty reigns. Because this was not the plan.

The Power of Collective Resistance

Musk’s departure did not occur in a vacuum. Internal politics and differing factions were always a cleaving line — but collective action was the axe that split them this far apart.

You were the axe if you organized or attended a Tesla Takedown event.

Or if you chained yourself to a Tesla showroom.

Or if you persuaded others to not buy a Tesla.

Or if you sold your Tesla, part of the crashing of the used Tesla pricetags.

Or if you put up stickers “Anti-Elon Tesla Club” or “I bought this before Elon went crazy” or “Elon is a Dogebag.”  

Or if you, like American Federation of Teachers, sent letters to Tesla shareholders due to the “crisis” of Musk’s doing.

Or if you defied his orders as federal worker or organized others to prepare quiet or loud resistance to his plans.

You may have only played a small role. But this is the point: together, a lot of people playing a small role are still more powerful than the most powerful person the planet.

Many people didn’t need to be told what to do. They knew to stop buying Tesla’s. Europe — where they have more experience recognizing Nazis — is now on track to buy half the number as before. The Tesla board has made numerous moves to pull its CEO back from government, understanding for them this is an existential issue.

Musk has lost a staggering $150 billion of wealth off his net worth since mid-December.

This is the most important teaching of these times: that collective power resides not in a sign or petition asking Musk to do better, but disabling the abuser by undermining their power.

Noncooperation means we don’t give them money, our social capital, our social approval, or our obedience when they tell us what to do. When we don’t buy Musk’s stuff, his power weakens. When we turn Musk’s cars turn into pariahs, his power weakens. When he refuse Musk’s orders and turn to mass noncompliance, his power weakens. Eventually, it becomes too costly for him to keep doing what he’s doing.

To repeat the point: we don’t let up. We know this is just a retreat in a long battle. So we expand. Tesla Takedown is already asking people to target Public dollars that go to subsidize Tesla.

We expand and target his contracts with SpaceX, we pressure T-Mobile and anyone else who uses Starlink to find services that aren’t run by Nazis, we keep up pressure on Tesla. This is what will keep him from returning to the White House — even as we expand to other members of DOGE, too.

And if you’re not sure where to start, remember Tesla Takedown didn’t start as a national plan. It started by a bunch of people doing things that made sense to them — and eventually a small crew “coordinated” what was already happening locally across the country.

So don’t wait. Start beating up on T-Mobile for using Musk’s Starlink. Make your own protests at SpaceX facilities, like those in Texas, California and Washington. End local contracts and subsidies to Starlink and Tesla. Follow Ontario who canceled their $69 million contract with Starlink or help Italy reject its $1.63 billion stalled negotiations.

Keep the pressure on.

And let this serve as both a victory and a reminder in the power of collective noncooperation.

What’s the plan going forward? In all ways possible, we don’t give them our money, our social capital, our social approval, or our obedience when they tell us what to do.

More on noncooperation examples in these times:

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