Why Elon Musk Went Full MAGA

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Just a few years ago, Elon Musk seemed to be just another Silicon Valley billionaire with no true political compass. He once described himself as “half-Republican, half-Democrat” and often donated money to candidates from both parties. But all that seemed to change during the Covid-19 pandemic when Musk started taking much more right-wing stances about lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and many other divisive political issues, often spreading misinformation in the process.

Today, Musk has donated almost $120 million of his own money to get Donald Trump reelected. He recently campaigned with Trump at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where he said he wasn’t just MAGA, he was “dark, gothic MAGA.” Musk is using both his financial resources as the world’s richest person along with the soft power he wields on X, the social media platform he bought two years ago, where he routinely posts to his 200 million followers why they should vote for Trump.

In this Reveal podcast extra, host Al Letson talks about Musk’s political evolution with Mother Jones senior reporter Anna Merlan, who’s been covering the many ways Musk has tried to influence the 2024 election.

“There have always been billionaires and titans of industry who get involved in politics,” Merlan says. “But I think the scale of Musk’s involvement is really different because it’s not just that he’s a billionaire. It’s not just that he’s endorsing Trump. It’s also that he controls a powerful and widespread communication medium.”

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Read: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Quietly Subpoena Public Interest Groups (Mother Jones)

Read: How Elon Musk is Tying His Love for Trump to His Fight in Brazil (Mother Jones)

Transcript

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0:00.0	On the broadside, we take you into the heart of the South, with stories that'll make you say,
0:05.6	Wait a second, this is actually real.
0:08.4	A place where storytelling is baked into our DNA.
0:13.0	Do you think it was Bigfoot, Emily?
0:14.9	When you're in the woods, late at night,
0:17.2	is easy to start believing in things.
0:20.5	Listen to the broadside.
0:22.0	One story, every week exploring the rich traditions of the South.
0:27.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is reveal.
0:35.0	I'm Al Letton.
0:37.0	And I'm back again midweek to drop our final bonus episode
0:41.0	before the election, an election in which one person in particular has
0:46.2	played an outsized role.
0:48.8	Elon Musk!
0:51.8	I'm not just MAGA I'm Doc Gothic MAGA.
0:55.0	There's a lot of people out there who need to vote for President Trump.
1:00.0	America's just not not just going to be great. America is going not going to be great.
1:03.0	America is going to reach heights that it has never seen before.
1:06.7	The future is going to be amazing!
1:09.9	That was Elon Musk this weekend at a Trump rally inside Madison Square Garden.
1:17.0	Dark Gothic MAGA Musk is all in on Donald Trump.
1:21.0	Over the last few months, the world's richest person has put tens of millions of dollars
	...

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