Elon Musk, the wealthiest individual in the world, was once regarded as a political ‘moderate.’Before the pandemic, he contributed to Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2016, he stated to CNBC that Donald Trump did not possess the “sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”
Currently, Musk is deeply involved in Trump’s presidency, even having an office in the White House. So, what are his views today?
In recent years, he has ramped up his tweeting activity, especially as he became more engaged in the political arena.
His tweets range from seeming Russian disinformation to videos featuring local election candidates in Ireland.
During his initial two weeks overseeing U.S. federal employee efficiency, Musk tweeted almost 100 times daily on average, as data from X, the platform he owns, indicates.
From Tuesday, January 21, to Tuesday, February 4, Musk tweeted a total of 1,494 times, peaking with an astounding 178 posts on February 3.
On those days, he tweeted across a minimum of nine different hours, often exceeding that on many occasions.
His most prolific tweeting hour occurred on February 2, between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. EST, with Musk posting 49 tweets, averaging once every 80 seconds.
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Despite Musk and his team’s authorization to access extensive databases and systems crucial to the U.S. federal government, including the ability to lock out numerous employees and officials, Musk’s exact role in the Trump administration remains ambiguous.
Reportedly, he is not an employee but a “special government adviser.”
Emerging Clashes and Crises
Officially, Trump assigned Musk and his team, known as DOGE, the responsibility of “modernizing federal technology and software to enhance government efficiency and productivity.”
However, the scope of his activities has triggered what is increasingly perceived as a constitutional crisis in the U.S. Recently, Democratic politicians have accused him of orchestrating a “plutocratic coup.”
His tweets offer some insight into his perspective on this accusation.
“Dems keep saying ‘No one elected Elon Musk.’ Yes, we did. Elon was very visible with Trump, and we elected Trump to utilize Elon…” Musk retweeted at 3 a.m. on February 3.
According to Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress holds authority over federal spending. Musk operates within the executive branch of government (the presidency), which administers those funds as directed by Congress.
Nonetheless, DOGE has intervened in at least 15 federal agencies, drastically altering staffing and funding systems in ways that have sparked lawsuits and protests, with accusations that Article 1 has been disregarded.
Entry into USAID
Last week, Musk’s aides accessed the offices of USAID, the U.S. agency responsible for overseas aid and development, which Congress funds.
Many of his tweets focus on this agency, shedding light on his views regarding the related constitutional issues.
After DOGE’s entry into USAID, most of its 10,000 employees were put on leave, effectively shutting down the agency that provides humanitarian assistance in 100 countries.
In multiple tweets regarding this subject, Musk compared his team’s actions to “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
This remark was one of many late-night messages Musk posted during his first two weeks in the Trump administration.
Analysis of his tweeting pattern reveals that while he tweeted at various times throughout the day, activity typically dwindled after 3 a.m. EST and picked up again around mid-afternoon.
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Amplifying Misleading and False Claims
While USAID was a significant focus of his tweets, Musk also commented on vaccines, various U.S. agencies, media outlets, and the integrity or corruption of civil servants.
Several tweets spread or endorsed misinformation, including one on February 2, which posited, “Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people?”
Although there are ongoing debates within segments of the scientific community regarding whether the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic originated from a ‘lab leak,’ there are no credible claims— even from proponents of the lab leak theory— that the virus was engineered as a bioweapon or that USAID funded such research.
Musk has also propagated apparent misinformation regarding the spending with which he is directly involved.
The funding databases his team has accessed include the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system, managing over $6 trillion of annual U.S. government expenditures.
On January 28, the White House Press Secretary claimed that as a result of their work, DOGE had prevented $50 million from being spent “to fund condoms for Gaza.”
This assertion elicited skepticism, with fact-checkers and humanitarian workers noting that such funds could purchase around a billion condoms at wholesale prices. Many pointed out a comprehensive report on USAID spending from the previous year, which revealed only $46,000 had been allocated for family planning initiatives across the entire Middle East.
Musk responded to a tweet about the White House press secretary’s remark, stating, “My guess is that a lot of that money ended up in the pockets of Hamas, not actually condoms.”
The White House declined to provide further details regarding the alleged intended expenditure.
Analysts later noted that a pediatric AIDS foundation in Mozambique had received several million dollars in grants since 2021 for reproductive health projects in two provinces, one named Gaza.
Protesters demanding the preservation of USAID in Washington, D.C., in recent days (Getty Images)
Musk also retweeted a video on the afternoon of February 5, which analysts suggest has the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at undermining support for Ukraine in the U.S.
The video was originally posted by an account named ‘I Meme Therefore I Am’ and bore the branding and style of the E! News network, although it was never shared by that network.
In recent months, similar videos falsely associated with Western media logos and graphic animations have emerged from Russian pro-Kremlin Telegram groups.
The Twitter account amplified by Musk included the claim: ‘Did you know that USAID spent your tax dollars to fund celebrity trips to Ukraine, all to boost Zelensky’s popularity among Americans?’
The video alleged that USAID funded celebrity visits to Ukraine, claiming that actor Ben Stiller’s trip in 2022 cost U.S. taxpayers $4 million.
Stiller subsequently refuted the claims in the fabricated E! News video, stating, “Totally false. Untrue. These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID, and certainly no personal payments.”
No additional evidence has been provided to support the claims amplified by Musk.
Far-right Meme Accounts
The account ‘I Meme Therefore I Am’ is one of several ‘alt-right’ meme accounts that Musk frequently engages with and promotes. Data shows these accounts are among the most interacted with during the two-week period.
One of the meme accounts Musk engaged with the most is called ‘Autism Capital,’ to which he responded over 30 times during the reviewed two-week period.
On February 2, ‘Autism Capital’ shared a post about two USAID officials, directly naming one, stating, “John Voorhees and his deputy were put on leave late Saturday night after refusing to allow DOGE members access to USAID systems.”
Musk reposted this with the comment, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”
Later, when a Twitter account published a list of several names of Musk’s aides working under DOGE, Musk replied, “You have committed a crime,” leading to the removal of that account by X.
In various posts, Musk has promoted “the return of free speech.”
Images from a protest regarding Musk’s involvement with USAID in Washington, D.C. (Getty)
Another similar meme account Musk interacts with is named ‘Amuse,’ which boasts more than 530,000 followers. During the first 14 days of his tenure in the Trump administration, Musk reposted or quote-tweeted it more than 20 times.
A third account, dubbed ‘Rabbit Hole,’ has over 978,000 followers. Musk reposted or replied to content from this account more than 30 times during his initial two weeks in office.
Musk has also engaged with another meme account known as ‘Rothmus’ approximately 25 times, including retweeting a screenshot of a U.S. news story about a survey in Sweden claiming that 79% of refugees vacation in the country they fled.
Musk captioned the post, “Almost 80% of ‘refugees’ go on vacation to the country they claim to have fled from…”
The claim he amplified stemmed from a 2022 survey with a sample size of 183 people with refugee status in Sweden. The pollsters later informed the BBC that respondents typically spoke Swedish fluently and likely received refugee status decades prior.
“We were referring to individuals primarily from the war in Yugoslavia, Chile, and the fall of the Soviet Bloc, among others, whose situations have significantly changed,” the pollster who carried out the original survey remarked to the BBC.
The Straight Arm Moment and the Media
Media organizations, including the BBC, were also the target of Musk’s commentary during the analyzed time frame, particularly shortly after he addressed a crowd of Trump supporters following the presidential inauguration.
At the conclusion of his speech, Musk controversially stepped back from the microphone, performed what seemed like two straight-armed salutes, then resumed speaking, saying, “My heart goes out to you.”
Watch: Footage of the speech and gesture by Musk
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Several news organizations contended that the gesture resembled a fascist or ‘Roman’ salute.
“It was astonishing how desperately the legacy media tried to cancel me for saying ‘my heart goes out to you’ while moving my hand from my heart to the audience. Ultimately, this deception will merely serve as another nail in the coffin of legacy media,” Musk stated two days later.
He also shared or amplified tweets criticizing various media outlets, including Politico, BBC, NPR, and CBS, many of which contained misleading information.
For instance, he endorsed claims made by Trump and others that “billions of dollars” had been allocated to “fake news” for favorable coverage, with $8 million purportedly going to Politico.
Leadership at Politico clarified in a prominent memo to staff that it “has never benefitted from government programs or subsidies – not one cent, ever.”
It appears that the funds paid to Politico—specialized in policy, legislative, and political issues—were for subscriptions related to agency staff work rather than direct funding.
European Focus
Throughout the 14 days examined, Musk frequently directed his attention to European media and issues, posting multiple variations of the message ‘MEGA – Make Europe Great Again.’
He often did this by amplifying content linked to an account associated with a cryptocurrency scam called ‘InevitableWest.’
On February 5, Musk shared content from that account alleging that no European leaders had commented on a shooting at a Swedish education facility that resulted in ten fatalities.
“No European politician has mentioned it. The legacy media, as always, is silent. Is this the new normal for Europe?” the post stated.
By that time, numerous European leaders had issued statements condemning the shooting, which was a leading news story across various countries in the continent, including Ireland.
Subsequently, the principal investigator into the incident reported that “multiple nationalities, different genders, and ages” were represented among the victims.
Broadcaster TV4 later released a video shot by a student hiding in a bathroom, capturing sounds of gunfire outside and someone yelling, “You will leave Europe!”
The Syrian embassy in Sweden confirmed that at least two victims were Syrian, while Bosnia’s foreign ministry noted that a Bosnian woman had been killed, according to family members of the victim who contacted their embassy.
Musk, having expressed support for far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, has not revisited the topic of the school shooting since.
He has also urged voters to support the far-right German party AfD in the impending election.
Musk spoke virtually to an AfD event in January. (Getty)
On February 1, he amplified a video of himself alongside a message advocating for followers to persuade friends and family to consider backing AfD.
Additionally, he has shared posts from advisors affiliated with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Reach and Conflict Concerns
In various posts he recently shared concerning Ireland was a video where an unsuccessful local election candidate claimed her child was “the only Irish child” in a class of 30.
Musk simply reposted the original tweet at 6 p.m. EST on January 30, adding the term “Wow.”
The video contains previously shared footage of the woman confronting Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman about what she characterized as mass immigration.
Data from X indicates the post containing the video has garnered 50 million views and has been retweeted by 46,000 accounts.
Musk boasts a following of 216 million on X. Following his takeover, the platform’s algorithm was adjusted to ensure users consistently see and prioritize his posts.
His businesses maintain numerous significant contracts with U.S. government agencies, raising substantial conflict of interest concerns regarding his actions.
Trump, who has received millions in campaign contributions from Musk, reassured the public last week, stating, “If there’s a conflict [of interest],” the president said, “then we won’t allow him near it.”
On Friday, Trump mentioned he had directed Musk to investigate the Pentagon, home to the U.S. Department of Defense, where Musk’s companies hold billions of dollars in contracts.
