On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter, Inc. (now X) For approximately $44 Billion dollars. Ever since Musk has purchased the platform, the political landscape of the United States has been forever changed.
When Musk purchased Twitter, he cited wanting to bring free speech back to Twitter. This involved unsuspending multiple accounts that had shared hateful rhetoric and misinformation.
Musk has promoted Right-Wing rhetoric across X on mass, openly supporting President Donald Trump during his bid to win the presidency in 2024. This was followed by Musk being directly associated with Donald Trump.
Musk, being so associated with Trump, influenced his way into being involved in Political events. He pushed forward the idea of the Department of Government Efficiency, which was announced by President Trump in November 2024.
This shows a dangerous trend of Billionaires being involved in Politics, pushing their own interests.
This has already been shown in Musk, with a controversy over H1B1 Visas which caused a large rift between the wealthy supporters of Donald Trump and his rich supporters.
Though, the most dangerous part of this is Donald Trump coming out and flipping his policy position on H1B1 Visas, from being outwardly against them, to being in support of them. There is no coincidence that Musk must have convinced the President to flip his position, for his own benefit.
Musk is showing to have immense power over our political institutions, and this can only get worse with Trump being inaugurated once again.
An issue with Musk being involved in our political process has already been shown. The threat of a government shutdown loomed near, and a Bipartisan spending bill floated in Congress. However Musk went onto X and immediately criticized the bill due to its length and spread lies about what was in the bill, which led Trump to soon criticize the said bill, forcing it to be rewritten and redrafted with just days before the threat of a government shutdown.
These show a scary precedent, as Elon ramped up his political involvement and overreach even before the inauguration of Trump.
Musk is an unelected public figure who seems to hold an immense power over our government. This shows a future of Oligarchs to be allowed into our government without being elected but only being pushed into having power in our government due to their wealth.
Musk owning X already poses an issue with him being involved so greatly in politics, as he can shut down any critics at will. There are no checks on his power as he is elected, and the Republican Party, who he is closely aligned with, is coming into office, meaning Musk will have at minimum 2 years of rapidly growing influence on the U.S. Government to benefit him and the rich, leaving the average American dry and lied to.
With the path Musk is going down, he is aiming to cement a long-lasting influence. This only sets precedent for more billionaires (such as Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc.) to be involved in American Politics, and it has already begun with Bezos and Zuckerberg turning more to the right.
