At the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was gifted his own role in the administration. As head of the meme-named Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), Musk had unprecedented power over government spending. He used that position to lay waste to USAID, among other departments, leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths worldwide.
At times, some speculated that Musk’s position was almost that of co-president.
But by early summer 2025, his relationship with Trump had soured. Musk quit at the beginning of June and spoke out against Trump’s budget bill, which he called a “disgusting abomination”.
Trump hit back, claiming Musk “went CRAZY” because the bill eliminated tax credits for Tesla, Musk’s electric car company.
“@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk responded. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
Musk’s post was later deleted, but it seemed like the feud was irreparable. Musk even threatened to start a rival political party, while Trump’s camp labelled Musk an unstable drug addict.
But Trump and Musk were photographed speaking at a memorial for activist Charlie Kirk in September, and Musk dined with Vice President JD Vance a few months later. The new year brought further reconciliation, with the two sharing a meal. “Had a lovely dinner last night with @POTUS and @FLOTUS,” Musk tweeted on January 4th. “2026 is going to be amazing!”
Donald Trump and Elon Musk at a public memorial for murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on 21 September, 2025 (Photo: Ross D. Franklin/AP)Musk represents a unique figure on the world stage. His power is unparalleled, and not just through his bankrolling of the US right – he was the biggest political donor in the 2024 cycle, giving a jaw-dropping $290 million. Musk’s power also comes through the control he wields over the global political id.
Before he took over Twitter, it was a relatively reliable, if febrile, digital town square. Since buying and rebranding it X, Musk has remade it as a propaganda machine, twisting its algorithm to push right-wing content.
Despite this, institutions, politicians, journalists and policymakers in the US and worldwide remain inextricably tied to the site. Its continued ubiquity grants Musk immense power to manipulate public sentiment.
In recent months, Musk has dived wholeheartedly back into Republican campaign funding ahead of November’s midterm elections. In January, he donated $10 million to Nate Morris, a tech investor running to replace retiring Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. The contribution, Musk’s largest ever single donation in a congressional race, takes his total spending in the 2026 cycle above $50 million, with plenty more time to go.
The money looks like a statement of intent, signalling plans to be closely involved once again in Republican electoral strategy.
Elon Musk wearing a Make America Great Again cap while listening to Donald Trump address the media in March 2025 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)Musk is under massive pressure, perhaps more than at any other time. His rocket company SpaceX, which depends on US government contracts, is planning what could be the largest IPO ever, at a $1.5 trillion valuation.
Musk also has worked to cement the monopoly enjoyed by its satellite division, Starlink – making it indispensable in Ukraine and most recently in Iran, where he made access free during a blackout imposed by the regime as part of a crackdown on dissidents.
At Tesla, Musk’s leadership is now under scrutiny. An eye-watering trillion-dollar remuneration package for Musk was approved by shareholders last year, but his increasingly erratic posting and cosying up to – and feuding with – politicians like Trump has caused problems for the company. A study by Yale economists released in November 2025 found that Musk’s partisan political activities resulted in more than a million lost car sales.
Tesla’s decline has been particularly painful in Europe, where Musk’s vocal support for far-right movements led to a 28 per cent drop in sales in 2025, even as electric car purchases jumped 27 per cent over the same period.
Musk’s other companies have also suffered blowback. In the UK, Companies House filings offered a glimpse inside the financials at X, showing revenues falling 58 per cent in 2024 and 66 per cent in 2023 as advertisers fled the site.
That pattern is unlikely to have changed, as Musk has only become more controversial.
In January 2025, he went on a spree of nearly 200 posts attacking the UK government, accusing Prime Minister Kier Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” and suggesting he should be imprisoned or hanged. Musk also appeared virtually at an AfD rally the same month, saying there was “too much focus on past guilt” in German politics.
A billboard organised by corporate accountability group Eko urging the Prime Minister to stand up to Elon Musk and ban X and Grok (Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters)Relations with UK and EU regulators have become further strained this year, with Musk’s AI company Grok, which is fully integrated with X, rolling out a feature that allowed users to “nudify” images. Analysis by AI Forensics, a European nonprofit, found that 2 per cent of the pictures it was asked to generate depicted people “appearing to be under the age of 18… including children under five”.
Responding to press inquiries, the company said: “Legacy Media Lies.” In a later statement, it admitted to “identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them”.
On 15 January, it was announced that Grok would no longer be allowed to edit photos of real people to show them in revealing clothing in places where it is illegal. “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing,” it said.
Days earlier, on 12 January, UK regulator Ofcom announced an investigation into the site under the Online Safety Act, putting the British government in the unusual position of continuing to use as a primary communication tool a site it is currently investigating for distributing sex abuse material. On 26 January, the EU opened its own investigation.
Musk’s renewed relationship with Trump highlights two seemingly conflicting things that are nonetheless both true.
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On the one hand, Musk is a monopolistic oligarch with nearly unlimited financial resources and a worldwide collection of right-wing parties in his pocket. Someone who has demonstrated a willingness to do anything to tighten his stranglehold on power.
At the same time, he is also incredibly vulnerable, with Tesla and X haemorrhaging market share, and with his companies simultaneously fighting a rearguard action against multiple regulators who sense blood in the water.
It is precisely this combination of power and desperation, however, that makes Musk such a potent danger.
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