Elon Musk prefers to move hard and fast. He likes to break things and bend them to his will. He is an experienced entrepreneur. In 1999, he sold his first business, Zip2, for over $300 million. In 2002, he sold PayPal for $1.5 billion. Today, he owns Tesla, one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the nation. He also owns Twitter, now rebranded as X, one of the largest social media companies in the world. He’s also the head of one of the nation’s largest rocket manufacturers, SpaceX. He is also the figurehead behind the Department of Government Efficiency.

There’s no question that Musk has seen enormous success in his business ventures. But government is an entirely different beast. While Musk has only had a few weeks to try his hand at budget-cutting and delivering efficiency in the federal government and he may yet see great success in that mission, he is deserving of all the scrutiny he has received as he plays with some of the vital levers of political power that affect the lives of millions of Americans.

While certain aspects of government can and should be managed similarly to a business, government is not a business. Musk is likely starting to learn that lesson as he faces the greatest backlash he’s ever seen over some of the reforms he’s pursued.

Musk has moved to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development, citing significant inefficiencies within the agency. With President Donald Trump’s endorsement, he distributed buyout packages to federal employees, of which approximately 77,000 accepted. Moreover, he has justifiably mandated that all federal employees resume full-time office work.

He has also sought access to highly sensitive systems, including the IT infrastructures of the Office of Personnel Management, Department of Labor and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The systems he has accessed contain sensitive data, including health care information and Social Security details. He has also sought access to the Treasury Department’s payment infrastructure, raising significant concerns regarding potential severe privacy violations associated with such access. To worsen the controversy, he has employed certain DOGE employees who have dubious pasts — particularly with regard to sensitive data — to assist him in accessing these systems and parsing through the data.

Last month, he sent an email to all federal employees inquiring about their achievements from the previous week. The email, originating from the Office of Personnel Management with the subject line, “What did you do last week?” requested employees to provide five examples of the work they completed in the preceding week. Musk stated on X that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation” and that it was “consistent with President [Trump’s] instructions.”

The enforceability of this email to cause resignations is questionable, as at least three federal agencies, including the FBI, State Department and Pentagon, have instructed their employees to disregard the email. This indicates a more significant problem regarding Musk’s management of the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s that the government is not a business, and while some aspects certainly should be run like one, there are far more considerations than simply saving money, and no one person can control the operations of each agency.

Corporations cater to their members or shareholders. The government exists to serve the people. Unlike a company, the government’s aim is to govern the nation and protect its people.

When the government generates revenue, it doesn’t do so to accumulate capital and pay its shareholders. Instead, it uses that money to fund important government services that serve the people. What is important in government can sometimes be, at least in the corporate sense, wasteful.

Consider public projects. It would undoubtedly be more efficient to have a single entity grant approval on its own terms. But, shouldn’t the people have a say? Is it wrong to have a statutorily mandated process that requires the government to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars soliciting community input, formulating new plans based on that input and ultimately executing the project? These processes drive the cost up. A private company could do it more quickly and for way less money, but is the government’s process truly wasteful?

Government is inefficient, not because it wants to be, but because it has to be.

The optics are significant as well. Over 3 million individuals employed by the federal government depend on this employment for their livelihoods. These individuals have devoted their lives to public service rather than to a corporation that offers products or services. The fact that they’re serving the public, and that many have done so for decades, means something. They are more than just wasted dollars.

Elon Musk has the talents to cut costs on government ledgers and turn the bureaucracy into a much more lean machine. Let’s hope he also understands that the federal government has duties to the American people beyond saving a buck.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.