Musk on Political Spending: 'I Think I've Done Enough'

Elon Musk donated more than $290 million to help President Trump get elected to a second term, but his next favored candidate may not be so lucky, reports Politico. "In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk said Tuesday during an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, per the Wall Street Journal. "I think I've done enough." The decision is another step back from politics for Musk, who has been shifting his attention away from the Department of Government Efficiency and back to his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk and his companies have suffered blowback over the cuts and layoffs enacted by DOGE, but he rejected the idea that his pullback from political spending is related. "If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," he said Tuesday, per Politico. "I don't currently see a reason." NBC News notes that Musk's most recent foray into political spending—in the high-profile Wisconsin Supreme Court race—ended in failure.

A separate Politico story about Musk takes note of a telling trend: President Trump hasn't mentioned him on Truth Social in more than a month. What's more, Republicans have largely stopped talking about him—"a remarkable change for the man who was seemingly everywhere in the early days of the second Trump administration." Given Musk's unpopularity, the GOP may benefit from the shift, the story adds. (More Elon Musk stories.)