Musk lays groundwork for big donor role in midterm elections as time with DOGE ends

By Nandita Bose, Alexandra Ulmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -As billionaire Elon Musk scales back work for U.S. President Donald Trump, he’s laying the groundwork for a major role as a Republican political megadonor in next year’s midterm elections, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter.

After announcing last week that his cost-cutting role at the White House was mainly done, Musk views his money and his social media platform X as potentially more powerful political tools than his time inside the government, when he became the face of Trump’s shake up of the federal bureaucracy, one of the people said.

The people said they expect Musk, the world’s richest person, to remain influential with Trump as a political adviser while investing in Republican candidates in next year’s midterms. 

“How Elon exits matters,” said a second person with direct knowledge of the discussions. “The priority is keeping him close — without turning a major ally into a liability heading into 2026.”

After overseeing job cuts at nearly every federal agency while leading the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk told investors last week that he would reduce his time with DOGE to a day or two a week from May. As a special government employee, he can only serve for 130 days, a period that will expire at the end of May.  

“I think he’s exhausted and exasperated, especially with the attacks on his companies,” said a third person who has knowledge of Musk’s efforts at DOGE. By “stepping back, you make yourself less of a target.”

Musk did not respond to requests for comment for this story. White House spokesman Harrison Fields declined to comment on Musk’s political plans.

Tesla has faced a troubling few months. The once-leading electric vehicle brand has been tarnished by protests against Musk’s far-right politics. Tesla vehicles have been vandalized. Deliveries of its aging vehicle lineup have nosedived. And its stock price has tumbled, prompting some investors to publicly urge Musk to exit politics.

Public disapproval of Musk, a former Democrat, has surged. Some 58% of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this month had an unfavorable opinion of Musk. In 2022, his disapproval ratings hovered in the mid-30s, opinion polls showed.

As Trump approaches 100 days in office, Musk’s time in the White House has been marked by the pursuit of one of the most substantial transformations of the federal workforce in decades – as well as by persistent questions about conflicts of interest and lack of transparency. Many of his companies had dealings with agencies and government departments targeted by DOGE.

The White House has said Musk’s business interests do not conflict with his role at DOGE. Musk told reporters in February that he was fighting waste, had zero conflicts and was “maximally transparent.”

After Trump’s inauguration, Musk quickly emerged as a powerful force in the White House: hyper-visible, unapologetically brash and unfettered by traditional norms. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, he brandished a red metallic chainsaw to wild cheers. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” he declared.

He set an ambitious target of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending. A DOGE website that gives regular updates on what it claims it has saved U.S. taxpayers – $160 billion to date – has been riddled with errors and corrections. 

Some cabinet members who initially welcomed Musk’s outsider energy grew wary of his tactics, four of the people said. Over time, they grew more confident pushing back against his job cuts, encouraged by Trump’s reminder in early March that staffing decisions rested with department secretaries, not with Musk, three of the people said.

That didn’t stop the infighting. Musk clashed with three of Trump’s most senior cabinet members — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent was dropped from Musk’s follow list on his social media site X, which some commentators saw as a sign of his frustration with him. Musk called Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.” Navarro dismissed the insults, saying,  ”I’ve been called worse.” 

A spokesperson for Duffy referred Reuters to the secretary’s remarks on March 24 when he dismissed reports of tension with Musk and said “we’re working well together.” A senior State Department official said there is “no daylight” between Rubio and Musk.

Fields said disagreements between Bessent and Musk “are a healthy part of the policy process” and “ridiculous palace intrigue stories from the media mean nothing and do not reflect the administration’s record of success.” Navarro did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump often praised Musk’s boldness. Still, the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs, which serves as a liaison between the White House and Congress, received frequent calls from Republican lawmakers expressing anger over Musk’s cuts to federal programs and the political fallout in their districts, two of the people said. At Republican town hall meetings, voters vented their anger at Musk and DOGE.

SEEKING SUPPORT FOR TESLA 

As a public backlash against Musk grew and waves of protests targeted its showrooms in the U.S. and Europe, Musk asked Trump to intervene and help his reeling EV business with a public demonstration of support for the Tesla brand, three of the people said.

The discussion took place between Musk and Trump over the weekend of March 8-9 when they traveled together to Mar-a-Lago. Musk also lobbied top aides and Republican lawmakers to publicly express support for Tesla, the three people said. One of the people described it as a “coordinated effort to boost Tesla’s public image.”

A few days later, on the afternoon of March 11, in an extraordinary scene, Trump showcased a cherry-red Tesla on the South Lawn. Seated in the car, he praised the company as a symbol of American innovation, called the Model S Tesla “beautiful” and said he’d buy it for White House staff use.

Fox News host and Trump ally Sean Hannity announced on X that evening, “I just ordered my new self-driving Tesla!” Republican Senator Ted Cruz posted a photo on X of himself posing with Trump’s newly purchased Tesla. “This may be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” he wrote in the March 14 post.

On March 19, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went on Fox News and urged viewers to buy Tesla stock, a possible violation of federal ethics rules that bar officials from endorsing specific companies, according to ethics experts. The White House said that no ethics rules were violated.

White House’s Fields said “any assertion Elon Musk appealed to President Trump for help is categorically false and never happened.” Trump has told reporters that Musk never asked him for a favor or any assistance related to his business interests. Musk has also stated publicly he never asked Trump for any favors.

Tesla, Lutnick, Cruz and Hannity did not respond to requests for comment.

WISCONSIN ELECTION – A TURNING POINT

Then came the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race, one of the most expensive judicial contests in U.S. history. After Musk made himself the face of the Republican campaign to end the court’s liberal majority, the high-profile April 1 election exposed the limits of his political influence and the risks of trying to buy sway in a battleground state.

Claiming “the course of Western civilization” was on the line, Musk handed out $1 million checks to two voters and campaigned in the state. He and political groups linked to him spent about $21 million to support conservative judge Brad Schimel for a seat on the court. 

Liberal Susan Crawford won by a decisive 10 points.

Many Democrats cast the race as a referendum on Musk.

By then, Musk had stoked Democratic anger on multiple fronts – from his prominent role in slashing the civil service and his criticisms of Social Security to a hand gesture that resembled a Nazi salute during Trump’s inauguration. The election highlighted how Musk’s involvement in a competitive race could backfire by mobilizing Democrats more than Republicans. Musk dismissed criticism of the hand gesture as a “tired” attack. 

Strategists in both parties saw his money as both a benefit and a liability for Republicans. Some said it may have prevented an even bigger win by Crawford. But it also fueled Democratic criticism that Trump is empowering an “oligarch” class of ultra-wealthy allies, a narrative they are expected to press with voters in the midterms. 

In 2024, Musk was the largest election-cycle donor, contributing more than $250 million to boost Trump and other Republicans.

Up until Wisconsin, Musk had operated with near-total autonomy in the White House, driving DOGE initiatives largely on his own terms, two of the people said. Following the defeat in Wisconsin, he seemed to take on a lower political profile, posting more about space and electric cars than politics on X.

“If I were the Republicans, I would hope he puts money into races but stays out of the limelight,” Brandon Scholz, a former executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party who is now an independent, said of next year’s midterms.

(Alexandra Ulmer reported from San Francisco. Additional reporting by Jack Queen in New York and Jason Lange in Washington. Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jason Szep)