If Republicans keep the Senate and outperform expectations in the House, much of the outcome may hinge on one man, and it is not Donald Trump. It is Elon Musk. He has given around $450 million to the Republican campaign effort, making him the single largest donor in any election cycle ever. His contributions alone account for one-quarter of all campaign donations Republicans have received this cycle.
With a net worth of around a trillion dollars, such giving is almost nothing to him. For the median American household, the equivalent would be giving about $100. Yet the scale of his spending is reality-warping for everyone else, and it highlights how hard it is to grasp how much money he has.
Money is not his only source of power. He controls X, Starlink, SpaceX, Neuralink and Tesla, giving him power over wealth, attention and critical infrastructure at a level no private individual has held. Quinn Slobodian, a professor of international history at Boston University and co-author of "Muskism" with Ben Tarnoff, argues that Musk is working to make the world ever more dependent on his systems. SpaceX is effectively the monopoly launch provider for low Earth orbit, and Starlink is becoming the default communications medium for battlefield operations and rural consumers.
Slobodian also points to Musk's media strategy. His purchase of Twitter in October 2022, long described as one of the biggest business failures in American history, has proved effective at creating an echo chamber that frames social problems and solutions on his terms. His targeting of the midterms, and his ability to make or break candidates, is a way to tighten that control and head off a feared regulatory wave under a Democratic majority.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing