Musk isn’t the first – or last – billionaire to pour big money into US elections
Elon Musk said, very loudly and very publicly, what is usually the quiet part of the role of money in US politics.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude,” he wrote on his X social media platform amid an ongoing feud with Donald Trump.
When rightwing commentator Laura Loomer wrote that Republicans on Capitol Hill had been discussing whom to side with in the inter-party feud, Musk replied with a nod toward the long tail of his influence. “Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years … ,” Musk wrote on X.
Billionaires in the US often seek to influence politics in big and small ways, throwing their money and influence around to extract what they want from the government. But few are as explicit and influential as Musk has proven in the past year – and it’s showing just how transactional and broken US governance has become.
