BASTROP, Texas — A few years back, a contractor doing some renovation work for my in-laws told a strange story. He claimed he had been called out to meet the representative of a businessman who wanted to build some houses near Bastrop, 30 miles south of Austin, Texas. As he was discussing the project details, he sensed that somebody was standing behind him. When he turned around, he saw the richest man in the world.
As far as Texas tall tales go, it was almost perfect, and yet I thought it was probably true. This was back when Elon Musk was just starting to move his companies out of California; long before he went all-in on Trump. The contractor turned the job down. He told my in-laws he preferred to do business with his neighbors, though I suspect the real reason is he wasn’t great at his job and feared Musk’s lawyers would have fed him through a woodchipper if he messed things up.