Elon Musk has gone from a tech entrepreneur largely avoidant of politics to what strategists call a “megaphone” for right-wing views as an online surrogate for former President Trump in the White House race.
The tech mogul began wading into the political landscape a few years ago, but the past few months have marked a significant increase in his partisan discourse, political experts said.
His embrace of Republican politics and Trump can now be seen nearly daily on his social media platform X, which was known as Twitter until he bought it in 2022.
Political strategists on both sides of the aisle contend Musk’s ramped up political activity – combined with his wealth and online visibility – could be an asset for Trump, whom he endorsed in July following the first assassination attempt on the former president.
“He probably does more to highlight the problems at the border than the entire corporate media complex just because of the size of his soapbox,” said one Republican strategist.
The strategist compared Musk’s shift into politics to Trump’s, calling the Tesla and SpaceX CEO “a quirky character that essentially pretty much everyone liked until he managed to buy Twitter and leaned in on some issues.”
“Donald Trump was immensely popular until he got involved in politics, and then half the country doesn’t like him,” the strategist said.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of Musk’s posts on X this year found he had about 230 times as many exchanges a month that contain political terms in 2024 compared with 2019, while a Washington Post analysis said nearly 20 percent of his posts this year have been political.
“I would argue that anything that Musk says, you imagine, has been cosigned or even instigated by Donald Trump,” political strategist Basil Smikle told The Hill.
Musk’s recent posts on X have ranged from reposting tweets criticizing Democrats — especially Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — to direct comments about Trump and the benefits of his re-election.
Earlier this month, Musk claimed “America will fall to tyranny” unless Trump is elected, garnering 83 million views. In another post following the second assassination attempt on Trump’s life, Musk wrote, “The incitement to hatred and violence against President Trump by the media and leading Democrats needs to stop.”
Musk’s posts and actions mark a sharp contrast from nearly 10 years ago, when he told Vanity Fair in 2015 that he gets “involved in politics as little as possible,” though his business ventures sometimes required him to get involved to “some amount.” In that same interview, Musk said he hoped Trump would not get the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, saying “that wouldn’t be good.”
His amped-up political involvement has drawn scrutiny from the left, some of whom argue his sharing of misinformation or conspiracy theories could negatively impact Democrats’ prospects in November.
“It’s totally putting a finger on the scale of our information ecosystem, with already such a tough landscape, and I think also a landscape that disadvantages Democrats from traditional media all the way to social media,” Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff said.
Musk — the most followed user on X with nearly 199 million followers — drew criticism earlier this month when he reposted a since-deleted tweet about rumors of “explosives” found in a car near a Trump rally, writing “Wow,” on X. The post now has a community note clarifying New York officials denied the reports but still appears on Musk’s feed.
In another post after the second attempt on Trump’s life, Musk came under fire for writing “no one is even trying” to assassinate Harris in what he called a “joke.” He later deleted the tweet amid backlash.
“Elon Musk is blatantly allowing misinformation to flow through that platform, that’s just not. It’s not good for democracy,” Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau said.
Musk is in a complex position as both the owner of a social media platform and a public, now partisan figure, strategists suggested.
Since purchasing X in 2022, the tech mogul took a new approach to the platform’s content policies, cutting back on several moderation features. The lack of moderation prompted various advertisers to flee the site and launch legal inquiries into company practices.
The platform’s algorithm has since been accused of favoring Musk’s posts, drawing concerns from some strategists about his influence on voters.
“The voter may experience a different type of influence on his [Musk’s] part, in the sense that they may see his tweets, but what they’re unsure of is how much his leadership of X is influencing the algorithm so that the voter is seeing something different than they would have seen had he not moved in,” Smikle said.
This “helps Trump,” Smikle said, because “it makes it feel to the viewer, to the consumer, that it is more organic than it probably is.”
Another Trump ally agreed, stating Musk is “extremely helpful” by simply using his X account to push attacks on Democrats that tend to get millions of views on the platform.
Smikle went as far to say that he is “getting a lot more antidemocratic content” on his feed since Musk’s takeover.
“I have seen a ton more anti Harris tweets by people of color and specifically African Americans, than I ever than I have seen any such, any such activity toward the Democrats or toward Biden,” he said, adding later, “That’s where Trump gets help and Kamala gets hurt.”
Todd Belt, the director of the political management program at the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University, argued X’s algorithm puts Musk “front and center,” but expressed doubt it could have any tangible effect on influencing voters.
“I don’t know that it has a tremendous amount of effect, because it gets lost in all the noise of the campaign, right?” Belt told The Hill. “It stimulates and activates the base,” he continued, “but I don’t think it’s convincing people.”
X nor the Trump campaign immediately responded to The Hill’s request for comment.
As Musk aligned with Trump, the former president returned to posting on the platform in July. Trump’s account was reinstated in 2023 after pre-Musk management banned him in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Musk restored Trump’s account last year amid a slew of other content moderation changes, which drew praise from right-wing personalities and concerns from online misinformation groups.
The X owner’s political reach has also stretched to the financial side. Musk has backed Save America PAC, a political group that has spent tens of millions of dollars on get out the vote efforts the Trump campaign is relying on to turn out low-propensity voters in swing states.
Trump even suggested he would put Musk in his Cabinet before backtracking, saying the mogul would probably be too busy. The former president then said this month he would create a “government efficiency commission” and tap Musk to lead the effort if he is reelected in November.
Musk, who has long advocated for a smaller government, discussed the concept during a X Spaces conversation last month, suggesting such a panel could look at national debt and how Congress can reevaluate spending.
It remains unclear exactly what this commission would do, and some Democrats have questioned whether it would be a serious effort.
Brett Samuels contributed reporting.
