Where do Elon Musk’s business interests end and Donald Trump’s political interests begin? Trick question—they’re one and the same.
How else do you explain the jarring sight of the President of the United States hawking Teslas on the White House South Lawn? Trump has always been a salesman, lending his name to real estate, casinos, restaurants, steaks, vitamins, a fragrance for men, watches, water, a bicycle race, office chairs, sneakers, vodka, coins, another fragrance, NFTs. You could, at this very moment, buy a Trump pickleball paddle from the Trump Store online, or a Trump sea mist & sage candle.
But Trump is most famously a pitchman for himself. (And Pizza Hut, if the price is right.) To spend this much political capital on Musk? The world’s richest man? Over a few protests at Tesla dealerships and a tanking stock price? Come on.
Trump is no altruist. Musk did, though, spend nearly $300 million on the 2024 US election cycle, with the vast majority of that directly in support of Trump’s presidential campaign. His transformation of Twitter into X has created an online MAGAtopia barely rivaled by Trump’s own Truth Social platform. And his work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has let Trump outsource the tedious mechanics of actual governance.
Trump reading off a literal list of Tesla retail prices is the purest distillation yet of a dynamic that won’t end well. It’s already going quite badly, for them and for us: The stock market is tanking, Musk is nearing rock bottom in opinion polls. GOP representatives are canceling town hall meetings rather than face the wrath of constituents over DOGE. Trump’s own cabinet officials are apparently just as fed up with Musk’s level of influence.
Meanwhile, that influence continues to grow. When engineers from SpaceX invaded the Federal Aviation Administration, they reportedly were quick to suggest their own Starlink technology as the solution to the agency’s technical problems. On Thursday, a month after Musk inexplicably met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in Washington, DC—with three of Musk’s children in tow—Starlink inked deals this week with two major wireless carriers there, creating a glide path for operating in the country.
Even Congress, supposedly a coequal branch of government, is beholden to Musk’s tempers and tweets. At a talk at Georgetown University’s Psaros Center on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson named Trump and Musk as the two people he prioritizes.
“Elon has the largest platform in the world, literally,” Johnson said. “If he goes on and says something that’s misunderstood or misinterpreted about something we’re doing, he can blow the whole thing up.”
What started as a self-serving bromance has become more volatile, and it goes deeper than DOGE. Trump told a reporter during his infomercial on Tuesday that he would label anyone who committed violence against Tesla dealerships a “domestic terrorist.” On Wednesday, members of the House DOGE subcommittee sent a letter to Federal Bureau of Investigation director Kash Patel and US attorney general Pam Bondi to probe the “wave of organized attacks” in recent weeks against Musk and Tesla.
Rather than process the “Tesla Takedown” protests as a sign of the deep unpopularity of DOGE and its ringleader, Trump and his adherents have leaned into conflation. What’s good for society is what’s good for Elon Musk. What’s bad for Elon Musk must be bad for society.
The lines are too blurred and the stakes too high. When Elon Musk calls the foreign minister of Poland a “small man,” will that animus be reflected in US policy? When he tells members of Congress to call him with concerns about DOGE, will they be speaking with a special adviser to the president or the guy who holds billions of dollars in government contracts? Whose interests does it serve when Musk blames a denial-of-service attack against X on Ukraine, even though there’s no indication that the country was involved?
It’s hard to overstate how deeply weird it is to see Trump, who never met a self-promotion he didn’t like, promote someone else. Even weirder when that person is increasingly a liability. In previous administrations, Musk’s deep unpopularity would have made him exactly the kind of person Trump fired unceremoniously, with an offhand I barely knew the guy. But Elon Musk is no Anthony Scaramucci. He’s not even a Corey Lewandowski. He’s the world’s richest man, and by god he needs to sell some cars.
There may be signs that this fever is breaking. Musk reportedly has designs on donating $100 million to Trump-affiliated political action committees; The Financial Times says that Musk was rebuffed and is wearing out his welcome. Musk wanted a government shutdown; Trump has pushed aggressively to prevent one.
But whatever rifts may exist between Trump and Musk aren’t wide enough to stop the president from dropping at least $90,000 on a cherry-red Tesla Model S Plaid. To save him from saying “everything’s computer!” in front of press pool cameras when confronted with a modern dashboard. To give Musk a vote of confidence so over-the-top that it simultaneously debases himself and his office.
Tesla stock had a nice bounce, though.
The Chatroom
How long will Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s close relationship last?
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WIRED Reads
- Elon Musk Has Wanted the Government Shutdown: Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk has wanted a government shutdown in part because it would potentially make it easier to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
- DOGE Has Deployed Its GSAi Custom Chatbot for 1,500 Federal Workers: Elon Musk’s DOGE team is automating tasks as it continues its purge of the federal workforce.
- EA Sensitive Complex Housing a CIA Facility Was on the GSA’s List of US Properties for Sale: Plans to redevelop a Northern Virginia warehouse site have long been complicated by the area’s worst-kept secret—the presence of a CIA facility. The GSA put the site up for sale anyway.
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What Else We’re Reading
🔗 Senate Democrats Balk at Funding Extension, Raising the Risk of a Shutdown: This situation is incredibly volatile, so who knows if this will hold up even by the time this is published. Sure seems like a shutdown could happen, though. (The New York Times)
🔗 Paper Shredders and Burn Bags: The Vandalism of USAID Is Nearly Complete: This is held up in courts for now, but even asking dozens of USAID employees to shred and burn a bunch of documents is bad enough. (Rolling Stone)
🔗 Judge Says Trump Penalties on Law Firm Send ‘Chills Down My Spine’: Another case where the courts, at least for now, are slowing down Trump’s retribution campaign. (The Washington Post)
The Download
Check out this week’s special-edition podcast episode, WIRED News Update: How a Government Shutdown Would Help Elon Musk. WIRED senior editor Leah Feiger joined global editorial director Katie Drummond to dig into all things DOGE. Listen now.
This is an edition of the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.
