In the early days of PayPal, Walter Isaacson explains (in his biography of Elon), Musk and Michael Moritz went to New York to see if they could recruit Rudy Giuliani to be a “political fixer” for becoming a bank:
But as soon as they walked into his office, they knew it would not work. “It was like walking into a mob scene,” Moritz says. “He was surrounded by goonish confidantes. He didn’t have any idea whatsoever about Silicon Valley, but he and his henchmen were eager to line their pockets.” They asked for 10 percent of the company, and that was the end of the meeting. “This guy occupies a different planet,” Musk told Moritz.
Musk’s face has encountered more adversity than that picture. I’m not surprised he picked up right away he was dealing with a wrong guy.
I must have assumed that Giuliani was individually well integrated into the New York American power structure, because I am reasonably surprised to learn that his organization was essentially Italian.
Rudy and Elon: Until Starlink came along, Rudy had done a hundred times more than had Elon to improve the human condition. Giulian’s style, apart from his daily interrogation sessions, was to select the right person, give them the tools to do the job, and leave them to get the hell on with it. In contrast to Elon’s micromanagement.