Corporate Connections: Intern at Meta, intern at Palantir, engineering intern at Bridgewater Associates Hedge Fund

DOGE Deployments: OPM, GSA, Education

Musk Connections: 21 years at SpaceX, currently Vice President of Human Resources. Previously occupied a number of management positions. Described as a “Musk insider,” Bjelde was one of the first employees at SpaceX. 

Other Corporate Connections: Bjelde is an investor in a self-piloting drone company called Rain.

Musk Connections: Former engineer at Tesla, Director of Electrical and Software Engineering at the Boring Company
Other Corporate Affiliations: Driver assist technology startup Comma.ai
DOGE Deployment: Office of Personnel Management

This week, the Trump administration is moving fast to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), abandoning several active enforcement cases against financiers ripping off consumers. The SEC paused its case against Trump ally Justin Sun and handed the crypto industry another victory. Elon Musk continues to have field day after field day, slashing agencies he doesn’t like and watching his businesses balloon in value since the election. Several Trump appointees (like CFTC Chair Nominee Brian Quintenz and acting administrator of the PHMSA Ben Kochman) have major conflicts of interests which will likely skew agency action towards the interests of corporations at the expense of the public. We also witnessed an instance of blatant bias in how legal actions are handled, with leniency toward Republicans.