Elon Musk’s announcement earlier this week that he intends to limit his political spending has reportedly left both Republicans and Democrats seething.
According to Politico, the GOP is concerned about the impact a sudden withdrawal of campaign funding from the world’s richest man will have on upcoming election races, while the other side of the aisle will miss having Musk as a target of public ire.
The Tesla, SpaceX, and X boss told the Bloomberg-hosted Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday that he is planning to rein in his political ambitions and “do a lot less in the future.”
“I think I’ve done enough. If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason,” Musk explained.
The billionaire donated at least $288m to Donald Trump’s campaign war chest last year and has since led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE has fired thousands of federal workers and cut millions of dollars in funding to U.S. projects and initiatives to reduce excess expenditures, waste, and fraud.
He also plowed at least $18m into the race in a failed attempt to elect a new justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in March, backing conservative circuit judge Brad Schimel to beat moderate rival Susan Crawford.
This failure, despite Musk’s cash injection and cheese-hatted personal appearances, suggested that his influence could already be beginning to wane.
Republicans had nevertheless hoped he would continue to invest in competitive contests, notably November’s Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania or the Virginia gubernatorial election, in which Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger is currently outspending GOP candidate Winsome Earle-Sears.
It remains to be seen whether Musk really will turn off the tap, a step the highly critical Trump ally Steve Bannon has characterised as “taking his toys and going home.”
“I believe he means it right now. But every election is unique,” Republican political consultant Josh Novotney told Politico. “So he may be motivated to be active again in the future.”
GOP senators Ted Cruz and Markwayne Mullin have rushed to praise the billionaire for his “extraordinary” contribution to the 2024 campaign in case he felt his generosity had gone underappreciated.
For Democrats, Musk has been a focal point for criticism of the Trump administration. Everyone from Joe Biden to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders has denounced him as an unelected “oligarch” whose money has bought him too much unchecked power at the heart of the U.S. government and sparked myriad conflicts of interest concerns.
The latest of these saw 42 members of the party write to the Pentagon’s inspector general this week to sound the alarm over SpaceX’s potentially lucrative involvement in Trump’s new Golden Dome anti-missile defense system.
The opposition likewise remains sceptical that Musk is really going away for good, whatever he says publicly about recommitting himself to Tesla. The electric car brand has been badly wounded by its political stunts, suffering a violent public backlash and a 71 percent crash in its first-quarter profits.
“I believe he will start moving his money in the background, through nonprofits,” said Pat Dennis, president of the American Bridge Democratic super PAC. “It’ll be a lot more of that now.”
