A running list of Elon Musk's wins and losses in Washington since Trump's election
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
- Elon Musk went all-in to get Trump elected. Now, he's trying to shake up Washington.
- He's racked up some wins so far. But some of the limits of his influence are coming into view.
- Here's a running list of Musk's wins and losses since Trump was reelected.
Since pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into helping President-elect Donald Trump win the 2024 election, Elon Musk has emerged as a major Washington power player.
Musk has the ear of the incoming president, is set to co-lead a "Department of Government Efficiency" initiative with Vivek Ramaswamy, and has already demonstrated an ability to influence the course of major legislation.
He hasn't won every single time, though. Musk's brash style has clashed at times with how Washington typically works, and he's encountered some losses here and there.
Here's a running list of where Musk has won as he's sought to influence Washington — and where he's lost.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
The week after Trump's reelection, Musk made his first major foray into the politics of Washington, enthusiastically backing Sen. Rick Scott of Florida to become the next Senate GOP leader.
Over the course of a dayslong online pressure campaign led by several MAGA-world voices, Musk referred to one of Scott's competitors, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, as the "top choice of Democrats." Senators privately grumbled that they were being bullied by outside figures.
It didn't work.
Scott received just 13 votes, and Thune — a close ally of outgoing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell — won the prize instead.
One key factor in Scott's loss may have been the fact that the vote was conducted via secret ballot, insulating senators from public backlash.
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
Perhaps the biggest win for Musk on Capitol has been lawmakers' outpouring of support for DOGE.
When Musk and Ramaswamy visited Capitol Hill in December, they were greeted like celebrities, with Republicans eyeing the government-efficiency initiative as an opportunity to enact all sorts of spending cuts they've long sought.
Some Democrats are even interested in getting involved, particularly when it comes to defense cuts.
What remains to be seen, however, is what DOGE ends up becoming in practice — and whether Musk and Ramaswamy are able to implement the trillions of dollars in spending cuts they've floated.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.
Musk is likely to benefit significantly from Trump naming Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission.
It's not just that Carr might be generally favorable toward Musk. He's also emerged as a public cheerleader of the billionaire businessman, including posting a photo with him earlier this year on X.
Elon Musk has transformed long-dormant industries, and he’s developed a first principles “production algorithm” to deliver results.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) August 26, 2024
It’s a great blueprint for reforming the Administrative State, driving efficiency in government, and unleashing a new cycle of American innovation. pic.twitter.com/JySzEtCsyj
Carr has publicly gone to bat for Musk before, including sending a letter to Brazilian regulators excoriating them for enacting a "cascading set of apparently unlawful and partisan political actions" after the country briefly banned X.
Musk may also benefit financially. The FCC oversees the country's broadband systems, and Musk's Starlink could see a windfall under the incoming Trump administration.
When the FCC denied government subsidies to Starlink and another broadband provider in 2022, Carr blasted the decision.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In December, Musk threw his support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that would force social media sites to alter their design to protect users under the age of 17.
Versions of the bill have been around since 2022, and online safety has become a bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill in recent years.
While the bill passed the Senate in June, it's been stalled in the House, where some Republicans have raised freedom-of-speech concerns. Musk and X helped negotiated a revised version of the bill in a bid to gain more support.
That effort was shot down by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told reporters that the bill wouldn't be moving before the end of the year.
Speaker Mike Johnson tells @mkraju that it is unlikely KOSA (kids online safety act) gets done this year
— haleytalbotcnn (@haleytalbotcnn) December 12, 2024
Johnson said he thinks the bill needs "a little more tweaking," and that ultimately it will be able to move forward "early next year." pic.twitter.com/mvPV7U8din
Allison Robbert / AFP via Getty Images
Musk's highest-profile flexing of his muscles on Capitol Hill happened in mid-December, when he led an online pressure campaign that resulted in the tanking of a short-term government funding bill.
The billionaire businessman and other conservatives cast the legislation as an example of just the kind of wasteful spending they're hoping to eliminate via DOGE.
In doing so, he got out ahead of Trump, who didn't weigh in on the legislation until well after it became clear that it wouldn't advance. That led Democrats to mockingly refer to Musk as the real leader of the GOP, a notion that Trump's team sought to tamp down.
While Musk succeeded in killing the initial bill, lawmakers didn't end up shutting down the government, as he suggested they should.
And Congress eventually passed a spending bill that, while significantly shorter than the initial bill Musk opposed, did many of the same things.
At one point, Musk publicly wondered if it was a "Republican bill or a Democrat bill."
So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill? 🤔 https://t.co/C54cbLGoGR
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024
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