Let me get this straight. The richest man on the planet, a guy who just crossed the trillion-dollar line, is funneling hundreds of millions into one political party, using a social media platform he owns to stir up race panic, promoting far-right parties across Europe, and the Republican National Committee is putting his face in fundraising emails like he’s the new Ronald Reagan. And the big question from the brain trust in the media is “why does the RNC get a pass?”
Because he paid for the pass, geniuses.
Musk’s Super PAC dropped more than $250 million to put Trump back in the White House. Now he’s loading up another $100 million to keep Republicans in control of Congress. And where does some of that money come from? Your tax dollars, funneled through government contracts. You paid for the rockets. You paid for the influence. You paid for the guy who turns around and tells you your elections are rigged.
The RNC sent out a fundraising email with Musk’s name splashed across the top. “Elon crunched the numbers,” it said, followed by the usual menu: millions of illegal immigrants, zero voter ID, infinite mail-in ballots, rigged maps. Then a Musk quote in all caps: “IT MUST BE DONE OR DEMOCRACY IS DEAD.” The party that spent four years screaming about election integrity is now using a billionaire’s social media posts as their star witness. No evidence. No data. Just Elon said it, so send us twenty-five bucks.
Here’s what nobody in the press wants to talk about. Musk isn’t just some rich guy with opinions. The Guardian reported he was pushing race science or anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January. The Washington Post noted he was posting “near daily” about race and some supposed genocide against white people. One commentator told the Post there was “no doubt he’s a white nationalist.” The Center for Countering Digital Hate says his posts on X helped amplify anti-immigrant sentiment that led to mob violence in Belfast. He called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act against protesters in Minnesota. He promoted a movie called “Citizen Vigilante” that the Economist’s editor called irresponsible for glorifying the murder of a Muslim immigrant family. Musk’s response: “It’s worth watching.”
Over in Europe, even the far-right wants distance. France’s National Rally, which is about as far-right as it gets in Western politics, publicly backed away from Musk’s endorsement of Marine Le Pen. The French foreign minister told him to reconsider. A former EU commissioner called it “meddling.” Germany’s chancellor called Musk’s involvement in German politics “completely unacceptable.” Musk has boosted Germany’s Alternative for Germany, Britain’s Tommy Robinson, and a co-founder of the white supremacist group Britain First.
AS Photography / PexelsSo let me follow the money here, because that’s what I do. One man, worth nearly a trillion dollars, with fat government contracts, buys himself a president for $250 million, buys himself a Congress for another $100 million, gets his name on party fundraising emails, and uses his own media platform to push racial grievance and election conspiracy theories. And the same Republican Party that spent years telling you they were draining the swamp can’t put him on a donor list fast enough.
The media’s framing is predictable. They call it “far-right extremism” and wring their hands about double standards. I call it something simpler. When one man can buy a whole party and nobody in that party blinks, you don’t have a political movement. You have a subsidiary.
The swamp doesn’t get drained. It just gets a new CEO.