I'm starting to think that Elon is this term's John Bolton. He was a bizarre pick for Trump's first term, but what Trump basically did with him is let him run wild a bit, then yank hard on his leash, humiliate him, and reverse course. I think he did this to basically give the donors what they wanted, demonstrated how unpopular and politically suicidal what they wanted was, and then went his own way.
The difference this time is that the donor himself wanted to be put in the position, and he's rather quickly burning through every ounce of goodwill that he's ever possessed while wreaking havoc everywhere from Medicaid to APHIS. Musk is basically giving the country a crash course in why libertarian tech bros are retarded and should not be allowed within 300 feet of government.
It's a good political sleight of hand. Trump gets to be the hero and the voice of the people when he swoops in to put a stop to it all while the donor can't say that he didn't try to deliver. The donor (or the donor's flunky) then becomes the patsy for their failed ideology, discrediting themselves in the process.