Elon Musk: A Democracy Can’t Exist If an Unelected Bureaucracy Runs the Show

Elon Musk: You can't have an autonomous bureaucracy in a democracy.

“If there's not a good feedback loop from the people to the government, and if you have rule of the bureaucrat, then what meaning does democracy actually have?

If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives in the form of the President, the Senate and the House, then we don't live in a democracy; we live in a bureaucracy.

It's incredibly important that we close that feedback loop and that the public's elected representatives decide what happens, as opposed to a large, unelected bureaucracy.

This is not to say that there aren't some good people who are in the federal bureaucracy, but you can't have an autonomous federal bureaucracy.

You have to have one that is responsive to the people. That's the whole point of a democracy.”

Press Conference at the White House, February 11, 2025