Thanks to the enormous success of his companies Tesla and SpaceX and his purchase of the social media company Twitter, Elon Musk is an American cultural icon.
Musk used his status to help President-elect Donald Trump along the campaign trail, a move that has paid massive dividends. Musk is set to join Trump’s campaign as an efficiency expert.
Unfortunately for Musk, who recently became the first person to have a net worth exceeding $400 billion, received some brutal advice from one of his company’s lawyers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX’s lawyers have advised Musk not to seek the highest possible level of security clearance when he joins Trump’s administration.
Per the Wall Street Journal, “the company’s lawyers advised senior executives not to seek a higher security clearance for Musk that would give him access to details about sensitive programs SpaceX is involved in, according to people familiar with the matter.”
“The reason, these people said, was that Musk would have had to answer questions from the government about his contacts with foreign nationals and drug use,” The Wall Street Journal continued.
The Journal reported that Musk’s current security clearance of “top secret” took years to obtain following his public use of marijuana during a podcast appearance in 2018.
It will be interesting to see if this hampers Musk’s effectiveness in Trump’s administration.
