Exactly. It's the same way that having a deformed jaw, hydrocephalus, and leg braces equates to being absolute ruler over an empire colonizing half the world.

There seems to have been a clear decline. It's doubtful that he would have gotten to his current level of wealth if he was mentally in the space he's in now back 10 or 15 years ago.

He’s doing all that despite his mental health issues. Not because of it. He’s just an embarrassment that needs to sort his shit out. Actually use his wealth to do something useful instead of hoarding more wealth and having more kids.

Wouldn't shadow president imply that he's acting within the shadows and out of sight? This is definitely not an apt description of what's going on. Co-president is much more apropos.

I suspect the behavior and insecurity we see now in Musk won’t get you anywhere… near there.

Musk apologist are rampant on HN.

How much time do you really think he's putting into running Tesla these days?

He's not running it. Tesla employees call him a "pigeon CEO" because "he comes in, shits all over us, and then leaves":

https://electrek.co/2024/04/22/elon-musk-pigeon-ceo-former-t...

All Musk does these days is actively damage the brand and lose sales:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/25/tesla-sal...