Then along comes Musk, with one of the world's loudest microphones, shouting that NASA's astronauts are stranded and that President Trump wants them saved. It's a bombshell thing for the founder of SpaceX, who has become a close advisor to Trump, to say publicly.

Perhaps the highest and best use of Elon Musk’s time and effort is not trying to reform the government. More entrepreneurship might help the world even more.

There are already signs that Elon Musk’s marriage of convenience to President Donald Trump could be a fraught union. Musk turned more than a few heads by taking the lead on defeating a government spending bill last month — Trump doesn’t like being overshadowed — and undercutting a just-announced White House AI project last week.