The Musk Campaign Steps Up

Elon Musk is campaigning hard for Donald Trump and may get a big say over policy if the Republican wins.Credit…Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

The Musk factor

Less than a week out from Election Day, both campaigns and their supporters are pulling out all of the stops. Few are doing as much as Elon Musk.

The tech billionaire is a force behind Donald Trump, putting both his prominent social media platform and millions of dollars to work bolstering the former president. It’s now becoming increasingly clear how much sway he might have in a potential second Trump administration and how his businesses could benefit.

Musk has become perhaps Trump’s biggest booster. His X account in recent days has been full of posts and reposts that either bolster Trump or denigrate Vice President Kamala Harris. In person, he’s showing up onstage at rallies, including the big one at Madison Square Garden in New York over the weekend.

Musk has also poured millions into pro-Trump super PACs, including one behind the $1 million giveaways to registered voters that has drawn legal opposition. 404 Media reports that another Musk-funded group is behind a Facebook ad campaign targeting registered Republicans with ostensibly pro-Harris messages — but actually promotes wildly exaggerated claims.

X is pushing more political content to users, often in support of Republicans. Reports by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post found that Musk’s social network is increasingly making election-related messages more prominent — even if the users haven’t shown any interest in seeing them, The Journal found.

A lot of what was shown to accounts that The Journal created for its report tended to be pro-Trump content from accounts including @catturd2, a prominent right-wing commentator. (That said, Musk has written that X itself would remain politically neutral, even if he isn’t.)