- Elon Musk is not just helming multiple companies and carrying out a blitz of disruptive hirings and firings through DOGE, he is also the interlocutor between Boeing and President Donald Trump, who is eagerly awaiting two new jets for Air Force One. Biographer Walter Isaacson has previously outlined Musk’s ability to be highly productive, veering on obsession and belligerence, as “demon mode.”
Elon Musk is adding more irons into an already blazing fire. Beyond heading the Department of Government Efficiency—which has bombarded Washington with breakneck moves to raze parts of the government in a matter of two weeks—and performing CEO duties for SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has another matter to attend to: He has been tasked in part with overseeing the delivery of two new jets for President Donald Trump’s Air Force One.
Two renovated 747 jets, which will serve as Trump’s designated aircraft, were originally slated for delivery in 2022. The project is now $2 billion over budget and projected to be delivered in 2027 and 2028 because of supply chain complications, labor challenges, and design changes.
“We’ve been engaged with Elon” and the U.S. Air Force to cut unnecessary costs and speed up the delivery timeline, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in an interview with CNBC last week. Musk visited Boeing—the competitor of his astronautics company SpaceX—in December. Ortberg said Boeing is continuing to work with Musk on the project.
“The president wants those planes sooner, so we’re working with Elon to see what can we do to pull up the schedule of those programs,” Ortberg said.
Trying to secure new Air Force One jets is hardly Musk’s only task as Trump’s right hand. In a frenzy of activity over the past two weeks, Musk has taken over the Office of Personnel Management to offer about 2 million federal workers deferred resignation deals. He’s been granted access to sensitive financial and personal data in the United States Agency for International Development systems, where almost all workers have been recalled.
Musk’s requests and changes have been so drastic that House Democrats proposed Wednesday the Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy (ELON MUSK) Act to ban “special government employees” with financial interests, such as Musk, from having government contracts.
"Demon mode"
Musk’s bouts of extreme productivity are well-documented, but come at a cost for those near him. In moments of around-the-clock work, Musk has been reported to adopt a temper and enter a trancelike state, according to journalist Walter Issacson, who penned Musk’s 2023 biography. Musk’s ex-partner Claire Boucher, also known as Grimes, coined the term “demon mode” to refer to his change in disposition, according to Isaacson. It’s helped him work his 120-hour work weeks.
“One of the things that Claire Boucher, known as Grimes, says is you don't want to be around him when he's in demon mode,” Isaacson told the Wall Street Journal in September 2023. “‘It's really frightening,’ she said. Then she added, ‘But demon mode is what gets shit done.’”
Musk is certainly working around the clock. He has claimed to be sleeping in the DOGE office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, replicating a habit from as early as 2018, when he slept at his Tesla factory—and encouraged employees to do the same—in order to meet tight deadlines.
Isaacson attributed Musk’s extreme productivity to his being a self-proclaimed “serial tasker,” someone who can focus on a singular task intensely. “He'll focus serially and sequentially on many different things,” Isaacson told the Rubin Report podcast in December. “And when he's focused on any of these things, you cannot distract him.”
It’s unclear if Musk has entered “demon mode,” but his knack for disrupting work flows and streamlining processes was apparently well-received at Boeing.
“They sincerely are looking at things in the contract or in the process that are slowing us down that are not providing value,” Ortberg said.
Boeing and the White House did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.
