# Political activities of Elon Musk

* This article is part of a series aboutElon Musk
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South African born, Canadian-American, businessman Elon Musk has been actively involved in politics, particularly in the United States and Europe, throughout the majority of his career. Despite being registered as Independent and historically donating to and voting for both Democrats and Republicans, his political contributions have since shifted almost entirely to right-leaning or far-right candidates and politicians, outright stating in 2022 that he would no longer support Democrats. In the time since, Musk has become more vocal about his views, frequently promoting conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Democrats, election fraud and immigration. As a result, he has been described as right-wing and conservative, though he rejects the conservative label.
Musk played a significant role in the 2024 United States presidential election by establishing a political action committee (PAC) in support of Donald Trump for his campaign, making him the election's largest donor with over US$250 million. Following Donald Trump's 2024 victory, Musk was appointed to co-run a new temporary government organization popularly known as the Department of Government Efficiency. In response to this position within the US government, his international political activities have been scrutinized, particularly in Europe, with some saying his actions and comments appear as "foreign interference" in domestic affairs. Musk's comments and actions have received increasing criticism from some of the governments and leaders of European countries, in particular regarding his support of Alternative for Germany during the 2025 German federal elections.

## United States

Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002, founding SpaceX that year using his share of the profits from PayPal's sale to eBay. From 2008 to 2013, Musk flew to Washington, D.C. forty times, according to biographer Ashlee Vance. At a Vanity Fair event with Y Combinator president Sam Altman in 2015, Musk said he was "involved in politics as little as possible". Prior to the 2016 United States presidential election, Musk donated to Hillary Clinton and later said he voted for her. In November 2016, Musk criticized Donald Trump as "not the right guy" in an interview with CNBC. The following month, Trump appointed Musk to his Strategic and Policy Forum. Musk later endorsed Trump for the 2024 United States presidential election.
A 2012 report from the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that tracks government spending, found that since 2002, SpaceX had spent more than $4 million on lobbying the United States Congress and more than $800,000 in political contributions to Democrats and Republicans. As for Musk specifically, the same report said that "SpaceX's campaign to win political support has been systematic and sophisticated," and that "unlike most tech-startups, SpaceX has maintained a significant lobbying presence in Washington almost since day 1" and that "Musk himself has donated roughly $725,000 to various campaigns since 2002. In 2004, he contributed $2,000 to President George W. Bush's reelection campaign, maxing out (over $100,000) to Barack Obama's reelection campaign and donated $5,000 to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who represents Florida, a state critical to the space industry. [...] All told, Musk and SpaceX gave out roughly $250,000 in the 2012 election cycle."
In 2017 Musk made his public first entry into major American politics, speaking at the National Governors Association at the invitation of Brian Sandoval.
By January 2017, Musk had met with Trump at Trump Tower to argue for the SpaceX Mars colonization program. That month, he told Gizmodo that he was among several "voices of reason" for Trump. In June, he resigned from his positions on Trump's advisory councils after the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement. Musk donated US$50,000 to an organization benefiting Republican members of the House of Representatives and an additional US$38,900 to a separate group ahead of the 2018 House of Representatives elections, defending his decision in order to "maintain dialogue". The following year, he offered an endorsement of Andrew Yang's presidential campaign and tacitly supported Kanye West's campaign in the 2020 presidential election, but said that he attempted to convince West to postpone his campaign in an interview with Maureen Dowd.
Speaking to Kara Swisher in September 2020, Musk considered voting for Trump if Joe Biden was not a viable candidate, though he later said he voted for Biden. In May 2022, Musk stated that the Democratic Party had become the "party of division and hate" and that he would vote for Republicans, later urging voters vote for Republicans in that year's midterm elections in order to counter a Democratic presidency.
In October 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had given over US$50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a political organization that targeted Democrats on issues such as medical care for transgender children and illegal immigration. He publicly endorsed Ron DeSantis in his presidential campaign the following year, hosting DeSantis in a Twitter Spaces event that was marred by technical issues. In August 2023, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suggested that Musk should serve as a presidential advisor for his presidential bid. That fall he supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 US presidential election, giving $10 million to his campaign in 2023, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. In January 2024, Musk participated in a forum with Democratic presidential primary challenger, Representative Dean Phillips regarding his presidential bid.
According to The Washington Post, Musk expressed support for Trump at an event hosted by businessman Nelson Peltz. In March 2024, The New York Times reported that he had met Trump at Mar-a-Lago; Musk believed that Biden should be defeated in the 2024 presidential election at the time. Approximately thirty minutes after a would-be assassin shot and wounded Trump at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, Musk endorsed Trump. He congratulated Trump's decision to name senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate.
During the transition period after Trump was re-elected, Musk became omnipresent at Mar-a-Lago, where his activities led The Washington Post to refer to him as "somewhere between unofficial co-president and 'first buddy'". In December, after Musk helped to kill a government funding bill, his outsize influence led some politicians and political commentators to start calling him "President Musk", or variants like "Shadow President Elon Musk". AI-generated images using this theme circulated on social media, such as one showing Musk being inaugurated while Trump held the bible on which Musk took his oath. Another, titled "President Musk", showed Trump as a puppet and Musk as the puppeteer. Cartoonists also created works with Musk as president, accompanied by Trump.
Musk attended Trump's inauguration in the United States Capitol rotunda with his son X Æ A-Xii, seated in close proximity to Trump. After the inauguration, he spoke at Trump's inaugural rally at Capital One Arena. During his speech, Musk clasped his right hand against his chest and raised out his arm above his head with his palm facing down, and turned around to perform the gesture to the audience behind him before saying, "My heart goes out to you." The gesture led to an unresolved controversy over whether or not he was giving a Nazi salute.
In February 2025 Musk attended the Conservative Political Action Conference. Argentine President Javier Milei gave Musk a chainsaw, which is a symbol that Milei has used in campaigns for cutting public spending.

### Political action committees

In June 2024, The New York Times revealed that a super PAC known as America PAC had spent at least US$6.6 million since the May 2024 to support Trump in the 2024 election. A website had been established collecting voters' information and encouraging them to vote. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Musk said he would commit a monthly donation of US$45 million to the super PAC; after the Journal published its article, Musk disputed its accuracy.
In October, a political action committee known as RBG PAC, in reference to the deceased Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, spent at least US$20 million on advertisements associating Trump with Ginsburg and her pro-abortion stance, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing. Clara Spera, Ginsburg's granddaughter, criticized the group in a statement; Ginsburg denounced Trump in an interview with The New York Times in 2016 and did not want to be replaced on the Court until Trump was out of office. An FEC filing in December revealed that Musk was RBG PAC's only donor.
By the end of Trump's presidential campaign, Musk had spent $277 million to elect Trump and allied Republicans, making the largest individual political donor of the 2024 election and the largest individual political donor since at least 2010 outside of candidates funding their own campaigns. Musk's donations primarily went to his super PAC, America PAC. Musk also gave $20.5 million to an "RBG PAC" and launched a $1 million a day giveaway for swing state voters the Justice Department warned could potentially violate federal election laws.

### Department of Government Efficiency

In August 2024, Musk held a discussion on X Spaces with Trump in which he suggested a "government efficiency commission" that he would serve on to ensure taxes were spent appropriately, an idea that Trump supported. The following month, The Washington Post reported that Trump had discussed the concept of a commission, led by business executives, to regulate government spending. At a speech before the Economic Club of New York that month, Trump publicly called for a commission to audit the federal government that would be led by Musk. After his victory in the 2024 election in November, Trump announced that he would establish the Department of Government Efficiency and appoint Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead it. Prior to its formation, ideological differences between the men led to Ramaswamy, who will enter the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial election, exiting the initiative.
In the days leading up to Trump's inauguration, representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency were sent to several federal agencies. By the inauguration, Musk had received a government email address and was prepared to begin working in the West Wing, according to The New York Times; prior reporting had indicated Musk would operate the Department of Government Efficiency from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, but he had objected to an apparent lessened level of access with Trump. In an executive order Trump signed after his inauguration, the United States Digital Service was renamed to the United States DOGE Service and a temporary organization was established beneath the DOGE Service. Each federal agency will be assigned a "DOGE team" of special government employees, a classification of temporary workers.
DOGE has reportedly taken over agencies and gained access to sensitive data, including the Treasury department, Office of Personnel Management and General Services Administration. DOGE has also reportedly shut down the USAID. Musk claimed credit for the shutdown of the agency, saying that he and his colleagues "spent the weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper." Potentially violating the Impoundment Control Act, Musk also boasted on X of shutting down payments that were approved by Congress.
In a call hosted on X on February 3 with senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, Musk proposed the non-enforcement or repeal of all federal regulations as a default position of the Trump administration.
After Musk took questions about DOGE in the Oval Office on February 11, sometimes holding his four year-old son on his shoulders, cartoonists portrayed Musk holding Trump on his shoulders like a child. The February 24 Time magazine cover portrayed Musk sitting behind the Resolute desk as if he were president.

## Argentina

Following the 2023 Argentine general election, Musk congratulated Javier Milei for his victory, writing that "prosperity is ahead for Argentina". Prior to his inauguration, Musk met with Milei; in a televised interview, Milei said that Musk was "extremely interested in lithium". In February 2024, Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones authorized Starlink, among other satellite internet providers, to operate in the country. Milei has sought to encourage lithium investment in Argentina, including a law that would give foreign investors in the mining industry tax cuts and various benefits for thirty years. In April, Milei and Musk met at a Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, in which they agreed to hold a "big event" in Argentina to promote freedom; The Wall Street Journal noted that the meeting followed praise that Musk offered for Milei, including for his speech at the World Economic Forum, as he sought to strengthen relations to gain access to Argentina's lithium resources and the country's approval for Starlink. According to then-ambassador to the United States Gerardo Werthein, Milei and Musk discussed lithium during the meeting. In May, Musk posted, "I recommend investing in Argentina" on X, after meeting with Milei in Los Angeles for an investors conference.

## China and Taiwan

Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, have faced stiff competition in China, where Musk has sought to develop his ventures.
The Taiwanese government began discussing the use of Starlink in the country in 2019, but discussions later faltered after SpaceX representatives pressured government officials to change a majority ownership law requiring telecommunications ventures to be owned by a local business. According to Bloomberg News, Musk sought to own the entire venture. In response to the instability of Starlink in the Russo-Ukrainian War, Taiwan began to develop its own communications network without SpaceX. Then-president Tsai Ing-wen pledged NT$40 billion for an Internet network managed by the Taiwanese government, later partnering with the Luxembourgish network company SES. In November 2023, Chunghwa Telecom announced a partnership with the French satellite operator Eutelsat. In September, Musk compared Taiwan to Hawaii, claiming that the island is an "integral part" of China; Joseph Wu, Taiwan's then-foreign minister, said that Taiwan was "certainly not for sale".

## Germany

Musk has prominently endorsed far-right German political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), in particular through activities on X. While initial endorsements of party-adjacent social media accounts started as early as late 2023, Musk started actively and openly promoting the party in late 2024 during the prelude of the 2025 German federal elections throughout various activities.
In December 2024, Musk responded to a tweet by German far-right influencer Naomi Seibt with "Only the AfD can save Germany". He reiterated his endorsement shortly after, adding the claim that other political parties have "utterly failed the people". Following the 2024 Magdeburg car attack shortly after his initial endorsement of AfD, Musk called Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany at the time, "a "fool" in a tweet on the platform, and called for his resignation. A few days later, on New Year's Day, he also attacked Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling him an "anti-democratic tyrant".
In January 2025, Musk agreed to host a Space with Alice Weidel, the leader of AfD and expected chancellor candidate of the party at the time, to promote the party and its positions. In it, responding to concerns about AfD being right-wing, Weidel proposed the thesis that Adolf Hitler was actually a communist, and not right-wing. The claim and Musk not contradicting it have been heavily criticized. The stream itself has been observed by European authorities and led to investigations about whether Musk's promotion of the party is a violation of the Digital Services Act regarding X's ranking algorithms unlawfully preferring AfD-adjacent accounts and content.
Previous to his official endorsement, there have been several other incidences of Musk interacting with users on X specifically promoting AfD since at least late 2023, including high-ranking party members. Notably, in April 2024, chair of local AfD Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was facing trial for using slogans historically in use by Nazi Germany's Sturmabteilung, which is punishable by law in Germany. A post by him on X about the situation was commented on by Musk, to which Höcke responded by further defending his use of the slogans. Höcke's original tweet received over 1,000 responses, which observers noted was considerably boosted by Musk's engagement. It was also noted that it was very unusual for Höcke to be tweeting in English instead of German, as well as it being unlikely that Musk would have noticed Höcke's tweets organically. A few weeks after this incident, as a response to a tweet about the European Parliament elections in 2024, Musk voiced doubts about the classification of AfD as a far-right political party, stating the policies he has heard about "don't sound extremist".
In his New Year's Eve address, chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the election will "not be decided by the owners of social media channels". In Der Spiegel, deputy chancellor Robert Habeck accused Musk of mounting a "frontal attack on our democracy". Christiane Hoffmann [de], a deputy government spokeswoman, accused Musk of attempting to influence the federal election.
Musk's endorsement has also been called into question by other business people, including Bill Gates and German investor Frank Thelen, who previously was a strong supporter of Musk. His involvement in German politics in particular has furthermore led to several German companies as well as other organizations ending their business relationships with him, as well as closing their social media accounts on X.
It has been observed by Bundesdatenschau, a project that analyzes the influence of German political parties on X, that AfD as well as associated accounts by party leaders such as Alice Weidel have considerably gained in reach on the platform since Musk's endorsements in 2025 compared to 2024.

### 2024 Die Welt op-ed

In December 2024, German daily newspaper of record Die Welt published an op-ed authored by Musk, where he reiterated his endorsement of Alternative für Deutschland previously stated on X, arguing that "traditional parties have failed" as well as calling into doubt the classification of AfD as far-right. The op-ed was published along with an op-ed countering his arguments authored by Jan Philipp Burgard [de], one of the editors-in-chief of the newspaper.
In direct response to the publication, several journalists and Die Welt employees resigned, including Eva Marie Kogel [de], department head of op-ed at the time. Additionally, several editors previously opposed the publication, being concerned both with considering it paid electoral campaigning for AfD as well as potential brand damage to the newspaper and the core values of its publishing company Axel Springer SE.
The op-ed was widely criticized both by German media as well as internationally. Some German publications called into question whether the untranslated English version of the op-ed was generated by XAI's own AI model Grok. In a response to the criticism and resignations at Die Welt, Burgard and Ulf Poschardt [de], editor-in-chief at the time of the op-ed's publication, defended the publication as an expression of freedom of speech.

### Alternative für Deutschland campaign rally appearance

During a campaign rally of Alternative für Deutschland in January 2025, Musk also joined for a short speech through a video call. Therein, he reiterated his previous statements of party support from X and his op-ed in Die Welt, as well as calling into question the European Union's regulatory reach. In addition, Musk criticized Germany's culture of remembrance, stating that there is "too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that". Following Musk's speech, Weidel thanked him for his statements, praised the second presidency of Donald Trump that Musk is closely associated with, and ended her statement with "Make Germany Great Again".
Musk's statements on remembrance culture have been widely criticized, in particular due to their timing shortly before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Olaf Scholz condemned Musk's comments as well as his general push of European far-right parties. Donald Tusk, prime minister of Poland, called Musk's words on remembrance culture "too familiar and ominous". Steffen Seibert, German ambassador to Israel at the time, stated that "Musk doesn't seem to know [Germany] well at all" and that people are not made felt guilty for crimes committed by the Nazis, contrary to his claims.

## Israel

In September 2023, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Musk at a Tesla factory in Fremont, California. In November, Musk and Netanyahu toured Kfar Aza, a kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas during the October 7 attacks. Netanyahu invited Musk to attend his address to the United States Congress in July 2024. In December, president Isaac Herzog called Musk to discuss a resolution to the Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis.

## Iran

In November 2024, The New York Times reported that Musk had met Amir Saeid Iravani in New York to discuss Iran–United States relations. In January 2025, Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released from an Iranian prison, followed by Iranian engineer Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, who was detained on behalf of the United States Department of Justice for allegedly producing drone technology used in the Tower 22 drone attack, from an Italian prison. According to The New York Times, Musk contacted Iravani to seek Sala's release. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni denied Musk's involvement in her release, citing a "diplomatic triangulation" between U.S., Italy, and Iran.

## Russia and Ukraine

In February 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian minister Mykhailo Fedorov requested Musk activate Starlink in the country. Additional Starlink terminals arrived two days later. In September, Musk refused to activate a geofence in Crimea, resulting in several boats being damaged. By October, Musk publicly questioned the sustainability of financing Starlink in Ukraine, but said he could continue funding access. That month, Musk posted a poll on Twitter outlining a peace plan that included the secession of Ukrainian territory to Russia; in response, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky posted his own poll criticizing him. In February 2023, Musk stated that SpaceX would prohibit Starlink's use in long-range drone strikes. According to Fedorov, Musk provided his private messages to Walter Isaacson for Elon Musk.
In October 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had maintained regular contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin for at least two years. In one discussion, Putin asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The following month, U.S. senators Jack Reed and Jeanne Shaheen of the Senate Committee on Armed Services sent a letter to U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland and Robert Storch, the inspector general of the Department of Defense, requesting that they reassess Musk's security clearance.

## United Kingdom
### Reform UK

In December 2024, the leader of the right-wing populist party Reform UK, Nigel Farage, stated that the party was discussing a donation from Musk after they met at Mar-a-Lago with party treasurer Nick Candy. The negotiations were denounced by Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who stated that the donation would be "counterproductive". In an interview with The Telegraph that month, Farage argued that Musk could court the youth vote for the party and assist in defeating the Conservative Party. In January 2025, Musk expressed support for Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist who was sentenced to over a year in prison on contempt of court charges. In response, several politicians who supported Brexit urged allies of president-elect Donald Trump to not endorse Robinson. Musk later abruptly disparaged Farage as the leader of the Reform Party as not having "what it takes" after Farage disavowed Robinson.

### U.K. child sexual abuse scandals

In January 2025, Musk began commenting on several child abuse scandals in the UK, including the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, in which many young girls were exploited by predominantly British Pakistani men. Musk said that Jess Phillips, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, "deserves to be in prison", when she denied requests for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham (Greater Manchester). He claimed that Phillips was a "rape genocide apologist" by rejecting calls for a national investigation. In addition, Musk castigated Keir Starmer, who served as the director of public prosecutions when the abuses were publicized, though he had published guidelines about handling the sexual exploitation of children. During an event for the National Health Service, Starmer indirectly denounced Musk for "lies and misinformation".

## Spain
### Support for Vox in Spain

In early 2025, Elon Musk publicly endorsed Spain's right-wing party, Vox, predicting its success in the country's upcoming elections, stating "Vox will win the next election." Musk expressed his support through a series of posts on X (formally known as Twitter), where he praised the party's stance on immigration, economic deregulation, and its opposition to European Union policies that he deemed restrictive to technological innovation. His endorsement sparked significant debate in Spain and across Europe, as political analysts viewed it as part of his broader engagement with right-wing movements globally.
Musk's comment led to speculation about potential business interests tied to his endorsement, particularly regarding Spain's lithium mining industry, which is crucial for Tesla, Inc.'s electric vehicle battery production. Some analysts suggested that a Vox-led government might pursue policies more favorable to Musk's business operations in Europe, including regulatory adjustments or tax incentives for tech investments. However, neither Musk nor Vox confirmed any direct discussions about such agreements.
The endorsement also drew criticism from political opponents, who accused Musk of using his vast online influence to interfere in European Democratic Party processes. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez dismissed Musk's comments as foreign meddling, while European Union officials expressed concerns about the growing role of tech billionaires in shaping political discourse. Despite the controversy, Vox leaders welcomed Musk's support, leveraging it in their campaign to appeal to younger, business-oriented voters.
Musk's involvement in Spanish politics reflects a broader patter of his engagement with global right-wing movements, including his previous support for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany. His endorsements continue to fuel his discussions about the political power of billionaire entrepreneurs and their impact on international affairs.