As election night projections looked increasingly favorable for Donald Trump, the tech titan who perhaps did more than anyone to shift Silicon Valley rightward, began taking his victory laps, first and foremost by replaying all his most ignominious hits.
As ever, the “record usage of this platform” boasts should be taken with a grain of salt, but X was undoubtedly a well-trafficked feed of information, both reliable and seriously unreliable, this election cycle. Not that Musk’s buddies see it that way. Rather, for hedge fund owner Bill Ackman, it’s vindication that X—where Ackman repeatedly pushed disinformation around network news, vaccines, and plagiarism—is the epitome of accuracy.
Musk had a lot riding on this election. He lost more money than you could ever dream of in the effort to transform Twitter into what it is today—a GOP propaganda channel—and has helped funnel millions and millions of tech-industry dollars into the Trump campaign’s pockets. Tesla’s business is suffering thanks to Musk’s far-right antics, which means he’s more dependent than ever on the federal contracts keeping SpaceX aloft. And, of course, he’s been promised a special Cabinet position in a Trump administration, as well as ample relief from taxes and regulatory scrutiny.
Much like his favorite podcast, Musk went “all in”—on Trump, white supremacist ideologies, and preemptive election conspiracies that he’s likely to keep spreading even after the polls have closed. The only way Musk could have recouped an investment of this size was to ensure a Trump victory. And he didn’t care about what he needed to break in order to make that happen.
Musk also benefited from an unholy alliance with a broader universe of “manosphere” influencers, extremely online extremists, and Democrat-to-Trumpist converts. This collective of men included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joe Rogan, Chris Rufo, and Tucker Carlson, and the A.I. accelerationists—all of whom celebrated Musk’s Twitter takeover from Day 1 and benefited massively from his algorithmic tweaks, which boosted their far-right sentiments and conspiracy theories as liberal voices fled the platform.
The Tesla CEO already had a large, cultish following before he went full MAGA, and he was able to expand that coalition in significant fashion with these new friends. A few overarching factors likely helped: widespread post-pandemic malaise, popular dissatisfaction with Joe Biden’s soft-spoken presidency, and an animated double-down on toxic masculinity, right as women en masse were rising up against the Dobbs-era rollback of reproductive rights.
It’s not exactly a megapopular supermajority. There are enough Democratic down-ballot victories across even pro-Trump states (e.g., North Carolina) to dispute the thesis of a GOP-clenched nation. But there was a unique throughline for the Musk coalition all the way up through Trump: an ability to activate the types of online bros who might not have ever considered hitting the polling booth even 10 years ago. When the guys you turn to for business advice, workout tips, sports highlights, and “politically incorrect” commentary are telling you to vote a certain way … why wouldn’t you follow in their path?
For the entire election cycle, Musk and his ilk directed the online conversation to the lowest common denominator on his platform, spreading misinformation and dangerous lies about vulnerable people, including (but not limited to!) immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.
All those weird, hyperspecific, brain-wormed subjects that were once the domain of obscure message boards, comment sections, and niche social networks—hey, what if they were national talking points? Now, Musk and his pals will have Trump and J.D. Vance as willing ears for all their nutty musings on fertility rates, climate change, raw-egg diets, ketamine dosages, and public health. What a way to escalate your influence!
Anyway, the rocket Elon Musk is posting here is definitely supposed to look like a dick, right? And now he’s talking about a “nation of builders”? Someone’s been reading up on their Ibsen.
