Elon Musk News and Blog Posts

Tech mogul and top White House advisor Elon Musk donated more than $291 million to Republican candidates, political action committees and other outside spending organizations in the 2024 election cycle. While he was, by far, the biggest political donor, he was not the only person to contribute more than $100 million, according to analysis by OpenSecrets. 

While media outlets acclimate to the news cycle revolving around President Donald Trump for a second term, another figure has demanded almost as much attention: Elon Musk.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s two-and-a-half week push to reorganize USAID came to a head Tuesday after Trump signed an order placing almost all USAID workers on administrative leave. The order excludes “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.”

President-elect Trump selected venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan to help advise artificial intelligence policy in the Trump administration. The pick kicked off a debate over the holidays about immigration and H-1B visas, which Krishnan voiced support for in the past, and exposed a rift in Trump’s MAGA coalition.

The emerging split between two groups of Trump supporters – the grassroots MAGA loyalists and the less visible but more lucrative technology executives  – has already created a potentially damaging challenge for the new administration on one of their top policy priorities.

It’s worth noting that while Trump and Musk both harshly criticized Johnson’s original deal, the final agreement looked a lot more like the demands of the tech mogul than the wishes of the incoming president. By contrast, Trump’s ultimatum that the nation’s debt ceiling be increased before he took office had evaporated into a toothless commitment for future action.

Because we’re in an increasingly hyper-partisan atmosphere, some may dismiss DOGE as an unserious effort. We should take it seriously. The deficits and debt that the United States is accumulating are among the most pressing domestic problems that we face as a nation.

The New York Times reported Musk met with Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. days after the 2024 presidential election.

Sources on the left were apprehensive about many of Trump’s appointments, noting the nominees' often hard-lined stances on immigration yet dismissive opinions on the January 6 Capitol riot. Sources on the right met the appointments with mixed opinions, with some praising the president's choices, and others wary of the controversial figures.

Some on the left were quick to criticize Musk, calling his efforts insidious and purposefully questionable to attract attention. Some on the right praised him, on the other hand, and framed criticisms of Musk as hypocritical.