He held court docket within the Oval Workplace in a T-shirt and blazer with a baby clinging to his shoulders. He takes non-public conferences on Capitol Hill, providing his cellphone quantity for senators to voice their complaints, as if they’re his constituents. And final month, he brandished a series noticed as he promised to chop spending, to rapturous cheers from conservative activists.
Seven weeks into President Trump’s second administration, Elon Musk has not simply upended the federal government. His omnipresence in Washington has additionally swiftly change into an unpredictable issue that would reshape politics throughout the nation.
Already, the billionaire’s signature slash-and-burn model and showy spending cuts have reverberated far past the Capitol, making even lawmakers from deep-red states start to sweat. He has proven a willingness to form elections straight, each by spending domestically and by threatening to wield his fortune to stifle dissent throughout the Republican Get together.
And he has given a glimmer of hope to Democrats in quest of a message they’ll use in opposition to Mr. Trump, taking part in a starring function in new promoting for his or her candidates and by a number of of the occasion’s main marketing campaign arms. Democratic operatives gleefully swap non-public polling suggesting Mr. Musk might show a severe legal responsibility for the president.
Whereas many presidents have relied on members of the family or shut mates as advisers, by no means earlier than has the nation seen an unelected billionaire and newcomer to electoral politics achieve such a strong and distinguished perch within the White Home.
Mr. Musk’s help for Mr. Trump — which got here with near $300 million in monetary backing — could properly have helped him win the presidency. However their uncommon governing association is opening Republicans to being yoked politically not simply to Mr. Trump, but additionally to Mr. Musk, as his Division of Authorities Effectivity pushes for what might show to be unpopular cuts to federal applications and authorities jobs.
Some Republicans are already acknowledging the potential political hazards, voicing a light however notable phrase of warning about one in every of Mr. Trump’s greatest priorities.
“In my state, it’s all the time about jobs and the economic system,” mentioned Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who mentioned she had fielded anguished calls from constituents in West Virginia. “And anytime anyone loses a job, it has political danger for whoever’s in energy, there’s little doubt.”
The dangers for Republicans prolong past the potential results of his cuts on voters. Mr. Musk is an eccentric determine who has lengthy been unrestrained by filter or conference, protected by his wealth and his elite standing within the know-how trade. In a single interview with Joe Rogan final week, he made puns about Nazis, speculated about A.I.-powered intercourse robots and slammed the idea of Social Security — giving Republicans who’ve lengthy appeared away from Mr. Trump’s extra outlandish public statements one thing new to keep away from.
Now, these concepts seem to have an open door to the Oval Workplace, by means of a partnership that’s elevating eyebrows even amongst a few of their supporters.
“I don’t actually know what that relationship entails, with he and the president,” Ms. Capito mentioned. However, she added, she supported the concept of right-sizing authorities.
“I believe we’ll simply journey it and see, see what occurs,” she mentioned.
Democrats are desirous to journey it, too.
Elected officers, strategists and activists throughout the occasion are embracing a Musk-first technique as a approach to rally their supporters, sway independents and set up an early line of assault in opposition to Republicans.
“It’s a simple story: Elon Musk and the billionaires have taken over authorities to steal from the American folks to counterpoint themselves,” mentioned Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat and one in every of his occasion’s earliest critics of Mr. Musk. “That’s the message. It’s true, it’s persuasive, and if we repeat it again and again, they gained’t win.”
Public polling suggests Democrats have motive for optimism. A Washington Put up poll final month discovered that 49 p.c of American adults disapproved of the job Mr. Musk was doing within the federal authorities, whereas 34 p.c accredited. A Pew survey launched Feb. 19 discovered that 54 p.c of respondents held an unfavorable view of Mr. Musk and simply 3 p.c had not heard of him. And a Marist College poll launched Monday discovered that half of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Musk. A barely smaller share — 44 p.c of respondents — had an unfavorable opinion of his division, however solely 39 p.c had a good opinion of it.
A survey launched by the progressive-leaning Navigator Analysis confirmed that Mr. Musk is much less well-liked than the president — notably amongst Mr. Trump’s much less educated and fewer engaged supporters — and higher recognized than many within the administration. One ballot by a Democratic group in February discovered that Mr. Musk had considerably stronger title recognition than Vice President JD Vance.
Mr. Musk’s imprimatur alone makes the administration’s initiatives much less well-liked, one other non-public survey discovered: When his title was explicitly linked to his marquee effort, the Division of Authorities Effectivity, voters expressed a extra unfavorable view of this system.
Mr. Musk has already change into an enormous consider political battles outdoors Washington. In Wisconsin, Democrats rapidly seized on a $1 million donation by his political motion committee on behalf of a conservative candidate operating for a hotly contested State Supreme Courtroom seat. Wisconsin Democrats at the moment are framing your complete contest as “The People vs. Musk.”
In Virginia, Democrats within the Home of Delegates are operating advertisements that includes Mr. Musk’s face and accusing Mr. Trump of reducing advantages and driving up prices. Mr. Musk can also be figuring in at the very least one high-profile Democratic major. Within the New Jersey governor’s race, candidates like Consultant Mikie Sherrill incessantly evoke Mr. Musk on the stump. Footage of Mr. Musk making a gesture that appeared like a Nazi salute additionally seems in an ad by an out of doors group supporting Ms. Sherrill. She and Consultant Josh Gottheimer, one other contender, have additionally been attacked for receiving donations from SpaceX’s company political motion committee in earlier campaigns.
And Home Majority Ahead, a brilliant PAC supporting Democrats operating for the Home, launched advertisements this week focusing on 23 susceptible Republican lawmakers with a message that prominently featured Mr. Musk and made no point out of Mr. Trump. One of the ads says the Republicans would intestine Medicaid, drive the closure of rural hospitals and remove medical health insurance for low-income kids to “fund large tax cuts for Elon Musk and billionaires.” It ends with video footage of Mr. Musk shouting and waving a series noticed finally month’s Conservative Political Motion Convention.
In February, Home Majority Ahead suggested Democrats operating for Congress to concentrate on how Mr. Musk’s cuts might hurt well-liked applications like Social Safety and Medicare. “Whereas we shouldn’t chide Musk, Trump and others for being wealthy, audiences ought to know that the applications working households and seniors depend on are in peril so these within the administration can get wealthy,” the group wrote.
Nonetheless, there are some indicators that the politics round Mr. Musk are already shifting in Washington. Republicans on Capitol Hill have pressed him to assist them higher clarify his actions, and a few of them insist they’re standing up for constituents frightened that their jobs or their funding could possibly be on the chopping block.
“We’re ensuring to raise our voice and elevate, you realize, the nice work that’s being performed within the state,” mentioned Senator Katie Britt, Republican of Alabama.
Even that light pushback — which Ms. Britt bookended with reward for Musk and his cost-cutting effort — is uncommon in a Republican Get together that has realized to march in lock step with Mr. Trump.
Different Republicans have expressed reservations concerning the function Mr. Musk would possibly play in authorities price range talks — notably with the potential for a shutdown looming.
“All people, notably Elon, must have in mind how unproductive it’s,” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina mentioned of a possible shutdown. In an interview, he mentioned that almost all of what Mr. Musk was doing with the Division of Authorities Effectivity made sense, however that there have been “distinctive traits to our democracy that don’t make the entire issues work.”
There are some indications that Mr. Trump himself could possibly be shifting to rein in Mr. Musk. Although he showered him with reward throughout his joint address to Congress on Tuesday, Mr. Trump on Thursday mentioned that his cupboard secretaries, not Mr. Musk, had the authority to hold out cuts.
“We are saying the ‘scalpel’ reasonably than the ‘hatchet,’” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media publish.
However as his cuts have an effect on the lives of a wider swath of People, Democrats are making ready to make their opponents pay a value, on this yr’s elections after which within the midterms.
“This isn’t a debate a few invoice in Congress that by no means passes and by no means truly impacts folks,” mentioned Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. “In case you don’t get your V.A. advantages or your Social Safety examine, or your illness doesn’t get researched, they now personal it.”
Even in an unpredictable political atmosphere, Mr. Ferguson mentioned, “Pottery Barn guidelines nonetheless apply.”
