He specifically means Engineers and "High IQ" men, and it's because of his grandfather - who was a hardline Technocrat and part of a kind of Ayn Randesque cult called "Technology Incorporated".
...but his grandfather didn't think the cult went far enough:
You can’t be an engineer without recognizing many way things could be done better, if the people were out of the way.
This election in the US is partly about this exact question.
US executive branch is mostly a meritocracy: people are hired to be able to do their job. Only a few at the top of each agency are political appointees whose role is to guide the agency along the political policies
however both project 2025 and Trump vow to replace many of those people with those whose only skills are political and loyalty
If you think government works poorly now, just wait until they start replacing people who get the job done with people who worship dear leader, but don’t know what they’re doing. We see it at small scale, such as Supreme Court, but imagine hundreds of thousands.
As an engineer I would never want that Technocracy dystopia, but I sure as heck want government agencies and businesses filled with people hired for their ability to get the job done
"He specifically means Engineers and “High IQ” men" No, no he doesn't. The OP was not talking about intelligence, he was talking about physical strength. You could at least put an argument forward that intelligent people should be running things, but no, this is specifically saying that you have to be physically tough and strong. This is government by MMA fighters.
Ok so has he ever met engineers? Firstly our men come in a testosterone range from “full coat of fur except the top of the head” to “I think he might be intersex actually”. Secondly some of us are women. And thirdly, while I wish I could run for city council, the vast majority of us make for terrible leaders. We’re prone to tunnel vision and thinking we know everything. We’re also largely arrogant.
Oh, and fourthly, Elon isn’t one of us. Like dude, you’re a billionaire, you can afford the tutors to get an engineering degree, but you choose not to while clearly insecure about it.