Also, he should have someone look at that shiner.
Mr. Musk, who joined the president’s inner circle after making a vast fortune on cars, satellites and rocket ships, has long been known for grandiose statements and a mercurial personality. Supporters see him as an eccentric genius whose slash-and-burn management style is key to his success.
But last year, as he jumped into the political arena, some people who knew him worried about his frequent drug use, mood swings and fixation on having more children. This account of his behavior is based on private messages obtained by The Times as well as interviews with more than a dozen people who have known or worked with him.
This year, some of his longtime friends have renounced him, pointing to some of his public conduct.
“Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more,” said Philip Low, a neuroscientist and onetime friend of Mr. Musk’s who criticized him for his Nazi-like gesture at a rally.
And some women are challenging Mr. Musk for control of their children.
Mr. Musk has described some of his mental health issues in interviews and on social media, saying in one post that he has felt “great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress.” He has denounced traditional therapy and antidepressants.
He plays video games for hours on end. He struggles with binge eating, according to people familiar with his habits, and takes weight-loss medication. And he posts day and night on his social media platform, X.
Mr. Musk has a history of recreational drug use, The Wall Street Journal reported last year. Some board members at Tesla, his electric vehicle company, have worried about his use of drugs, including Ambien, a sleep medication.
In an interview in March 2024, the journalist Don Lemon pressed him on his drug use. Mr. Musk said he took only “a small amount” of ketamine, about once every two weeks, as a prescribed treatment for negative moods.
“If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” he said.
He had actually developed a far more serious habit, The Times found.
Mr. Musk had been using ketamine often, sometimes daily, and mixing it with other drugs, according to people familiar with his consumption. The line between medical use and recreation was blurry, troubling some people close to him.
He also took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms at private gatherings across the United States and in at least one other country, according to those who attended the events.
The Food and Drug Administration has formally approved the use of ketamine only as an anesthetic in medical procedures. Doctors with a special license may prescribe it for psychiatric disorders like depression. But the agency has warned about its risks, which came into sharp relief after the death of the actor Matthew Perry. The drug has psychedelic properties and can cause dissociation from reality. Chronic use can lead to addiction and problems with bladder pain and control.
People can self medicate if they want to, but this is something that can get your fired if you are a government employee. So how was he allowed to take a wrecking ball to to government agencies? (and/or terminate the employment of non-drug users)
Rhymes with syringe
Several of Hitler’s inner circle were drug addicts; his doctor, Theodor Morell, Herman Göring, and Hitler himself late in the war. Meth, cocaine, opium, synthetic and regular opiates, and more were among the drugs they abused, and I’ve read reports of widespread berserker-like and stamina-enhancing use of drugs in the German military.
The ultimate recalled iconic image—Hitler and a few loyalists in his bunker in the wrecked capital of a bomb-leveled country as enemy armies closed in from both sides—is unlikely to be reproduced, at least literally, because Trump—and Vance or Musk or whoever takes over when Trump dies—will no doubt unleash the nuclear arsenal before they surrender or kill themselves, even in the unlikely event that the rest of the world finally allies to stop US emissions.
The coup Field Marshal Irwin Rommel was part of failed, but if we allow the Republicans to consolidate power it’s likely to take an internal coup to remove them, and it’s extremely likely to be too late to save civilization.
The longer this regime has to consolidate power, kill its real and imagined enemies, and ethnically bleach and masculinize the US, the more parallels there will be to Hitler, Stalin, Amin, the Shah, Putin, the Saudi rulers, the Marcoses, Pinochet, and the rest.
The time we have to act is vanishing.
Check out Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich (2018), by Normal Ohler, if you want to learn more about drug use in Nazi Germany.