Amid “Breakup” With Trump, Some Democrats Say Party Should Start Courting Musk

Amid the ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, some Democrats are advocating for courting Musk as an ally — a move that demonstrates the willingness of some members of the party to compromise principles to win elections.

Over the past week, Musk has openly and frequently criticized Trump’s budget proposal — the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes a redistribution of wealth from the poor to the wealthy and huge cuts to social programs that will likely devastate millions of Americans. While Musk has not criticized it for those negative impacts, he has called the budget bill a “disgusting abomination” and said voters should “fire all politicians” who support it.

During a presser in the White House on Thursday, Trump expressed dismay at Musk’s opposition to the bill, saying he believed the Tesla CEO was mainly “upset” about the elimination of electric vehicle tax credits.

“I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump said.

Musk, responding to the president in real-time on his social media site X, claimed “the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK” was the main reason why he opposed the bill. He also lashed out at Trump.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” said Musk, who spent a quarter of a billion dollars of his own wealth to help elect the current president last fall.

Musk also alleged that Trump’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted for paying a minor for sex and was accused of trafficking children for sex before his death in 2019, was stronger than what’s been publicly disclosed.

“@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote.

Democrats have been well aware of the animosity brewing between Musk and Trump, with some apparently hoping to capitalize on it. According to a report from Politico published earlier this week, a number of prominent Democrats in Congress want to court Musk to their side, now that his relationship with Trump has frayed.

“We should ultimately be trying to convince him that the Democratic Party has more of the values that he agrees with,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) said, according to Politico. “A commitment to science funding, a commitment to clean technology, a commitment to seeing international students like him.”

Democrats should “be in a dialogue” with Musk, particularly over his opposition to Trump’s budget proposal, Khanna added.

Centrist Democratic Party organizer Liam Kerr was more upfront with the political calculations of befriending Musk.

“You don’t want anyone wildly distorting your politics, which he has a unique capability to do. But it’s a zero-sum game. Anything that he does that moves more toward Democrats hurts Republicans,” Politico quoted Kerr as saying.

Beyond the financial advantages Democrats would gain – which they already seem to recognize in their fundraising from SpaceX lobbyists – courting the Tesla CEO makes little to sense as a strategy to distinguish themselves from Trump, as Musk has not signaled any changes in his policy or ideological stances amid his falling out with the president.

Musk frequently lies on social media, promoting right-wing beliefs and spreading hateful rhetoric, particularly toward LGBTQ people and immigrants — and he has not disavowed those sentiments. Musk has also falsely framed social security as a “ponzi scheme,” and he supports dismantling other social programs.

Musk has also not repudiated fascistic points of view. Earlier this year, Musk gave his support to Alternative for Germany (AfD), a neo-Nazi political party, in that country’s elections. The billionaire also notably raised his hand during an inauguration celebration for Trump in what appeared to be a Nazi salute.

Even on Trump’s budget bill itself, Musk has supported aspects of it.

“Keep the good, remove the bad,” Musk wrote in a tweet on Thursday.

Multiple left-leaning voices, reacting to the Politico report, spoke out against the idea of trying to persuade Musk to align with the Democratic Party.

“No. Absolutely not,” said political commentator Allison Gill. “He’s a nazi. He smashed the federal government and stole our data. He put USAID and USIP in a wood chipper, leaving hundreds of thousands of children to die. He’s not welcome in any party I belong to.

“If Democrats rehab musk like they rehabbed [former President] George W. Bush, they deserve to lose – over and over and over,” Daily Kos reporter Oliver Willis wrote in a post on Bluesky.