5 Times Elon Musk Took His Obsession With Trump Way Too Far
Elon Musk's status as an avid Donald Trump supporter naturally leads many people to forget that, once upon a time, he wasn't as open about his political views. While speaking at a Vanity Fair event in 2015, the Tesla CEO asserted that he steered clear of politics for the most part and mostly only showed an interest in matters that would affect his many businesses. Privately, though, Musk donated money to both Republican and Democratic candidates in various positions over the years. In fact, according to the Washington Post, the SpaceX co-founder donated to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Ahead of voters heading to the polls, the tech billionaire even criticized Trump during a chat with CNBC, reasoning simply, "I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy."
Musk added, "He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States." Additionally, the divisive businessman agreed with many of Clinton's proposed policies. Despite everything, Musk took to X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 to proclaim that the platform wouldn't veer in any political direction, writing, "For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally." However, Musk's mostly apolitical stance went out the window in July 2024 following Trump's Pennsylvania rally shooting. Only minutes after the shocking events transpired, he took to X to confirm that he was fully backing the Republican candidate. Musk followed his endorsement with months of cringey behavior, leading everyone to believe that he wanted to be known as Trump's number-one fan.
He was way too enthusiastic at Donald Trump's rallies
Before Elon Musk walked onto the stage of Donald Trump's Pennsylvania rally in October 2024, the future president got the crowd warmed up for him by hailing the controversial businessman as the "man who saved free speech," among many other tall claims (via YouTube). Unfortunately, neither Trump's impassioned words nor Musk's opening speech made a mark. Instead, all anyone could remember from the event was the billionaire awkwardly jumping around the stage in a misguided attempt to get the crowd riled up.
As the bizarre moment started doing the rounds on social media, one commentator on X remarked that Musk's jumps gave off the vibes of a homeschooled child. And based on a close-up of the awkward moment, it certainly seems like Trump saw his friend as an annoying child at the time, too. Another X user joked that the jump seemed to be straight out of Roblox. Meanwhile, a critic argued that his embarrassing behavior came across as a desperate attempt to be accepted by the Republican candidate's many diehard followers.
I'm sorry, this is the funniest single photo of the entire election cycle. pic.twitter.com/w6PuJlPPmW
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) October 6, 2024
As the Internet collectively wondered what compelled the former PayPal co-owner to behave so strangely, one commenter posited that he may be trying to make an X using his body to promote his social media site. Given all this, it's unsurprising that Trump couldn't get Musk off the stage fast enough at his pre-inauguration rally, in January 2025. While the former "Apprentice" host graciously let his pal have over five minutes of talking time during Musk's first rally appearance, he cut it down considerably to only about a minute in 2025.
Musk donated over a quarter of a billion dollars to his campaign
Elon Musk reportedly spent millions on Donald Trump's campaign. According to a January 2025 report published by the Washington Post, at minimum, the tech entrepreneur donated $288 million towards the Republican candidate's campaign. The majority of that staggering number, $238 million, went towards Musk's Political Action Committee, America PAC. The group evidently wanted to close the gap between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Former Vice President Kamala Harris, in the crucial swing states, so they ran some pretty questionable ads. According to Fortune, the PAC was responsible for one commercial that featured the line: "If you sit this election out, Kamala and the crazies will win." It continued by warning, "You will be stuck with higher costs and more illegals invading our country."
If that wasn't strange enough already, Musk also gave a whopping $20.5 million to the RBG PAC, which apparently endeavored to make Trump's stance on abortion seem slightly less controversial. Politico reported that the PAC put most of its million towards creating ads that aimed to convince people that Trump and late Supreme Court justice and avid abortion supporter Ruth Bader Ginsburg actually shared the same views on the subject.
The group's website had photos of them together with the caption: "Great minds think alike." As the election drew closer, the RBG PAC ran ads to reassure people that Trump wouldn't back a national abortion ban and was in fact in favor of exceptions. According to the New York Times, Ginsburg's granddaughter, Clara Spera, shared a statement to clarify that the idea of the icon sharing the same views as Trump was "nothing short of appalling."
He created his own genre of MAGA merch
Elon Musk went against the grain when he attended his first Donald Trump rally in October 2024. Instead of donning the signature red color of the Republican party, he dressed in all-black from head to toe. And the tech billionaire made sure everyone knew all about his creative little move by proudly pointing out, "As you can see, I am not just MAGA, I'm dark MAGA" when he took the stage, per Deadline. In the following months, Musk continued wearing similar dark MAGA outfits whenever he appeared around Trump. Unfortunately, it seemed like everybody in their inner circle was content with being regular old red MAGA supporters, so Musk continued down the dark path all by himself. To make matters worse, it didn't seem like many social media users were warming up to his choice either.
One X commentator poked fun at the billionaire after he appeared at an October 2024 campaign rally by writing, "He calls himself 'dark, gothic MAGA' based on a hat nobody can read. Bro is so cringe." Things only got more bizarre in February 2025 when Musk attended the Conservative Political Action Conference donning another dark MAGA outfit, and Argentinian President Javier Milei presented him with a chainsaw.
The former PayPal co-owner confidently flaunted his gift to the audience while screaming, "This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," (via X). Unfortunately, Musk couldn't manage to go down the regular Trump supporter route for even a split second since he just had to wear an oversized MAGA hat in a February 2025 X post instead of the regular, normal-sized one.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2025
Musk seemingly won't leave the president alone
Although Donald Trump already accidentally confirmed that Elon Musk is getting super annoying, his pal doesn't seem to have taken the hint. Ever since the divisive politician clinched the win in the 2024 presidential elections, his tech billionaire buddy quite literally became Trump's right-hand man to the extent that he apparently refused to leave his side. In fact, Musk transcended the boundaries of a typical work friend and began casually hanging out with the Trump family, too.
While addressing the House of Republicans shortly after his win, the president seemingly acknowledged his irritation with Musk, admitting, "Elon won't go home. I can't get rid of him — at least until I don't like him," per Newsweek. According to NBC sources, Trump's inner circle was reportedly equally annoyed by the divisive businessman's lingering presence at his Mar-a-Lago compound in the days following his win too. Insiders claimed that the SpaceX founder was creating friction with Trump's closest allies by making himself out to be far more important than he really was.
"He's sure taking lots of credit for the president's victory," they pointed out. "Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen. He's trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. And the president is indebted to no one." Of course, all of this made it seem like Trump and Musk's bromance was going down in flames sooner than we thought. While the duo tried their best to present a united front, Musk's treatment at Trump's 2025 inauguration still made it clear that he was overstaying his welcome.
He basically turned his X account into a Donald Trump fan account
Elon Musk's X profile quickly started resembling a fan account dedicated to Donald Trump purely because of how much he tweeted about him. In October 2024, the X owner wrote that the main reason he backed the Republican candidate was because Musk believed that he would help him make his dreams of taking humanity to different planets a reality. In another strange tweet from November 2024, the tech billionaire claimed that his then-4-year-old son had suddenly come up to him and enthused, "Dad, we have to help Trump!"
Like any avid supporter, Musk also stepped in to publicly defend the divisive politician on multiple occasions. In January 2025, an X commentator shared a screenshot of a Bernie Sanders tweet pointing out how three of the wealthiest men in the country — Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos — were present at Trump's inauguration. In response, the SpaceX founder quipped, "The intern running Bernie's account is working overtime lmao. There were literally twice as many "billionaires" supporting Kamala vs Trump."
Likewise, in November 2024, renowned British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins tweeted that although he believed Trump was a terrible person, he was still holding out hope for Musk to do the right thing. The entrepeneur informed him that he didn't share the same belief and noted that the "Apprentice" alum had been the "subject of extreme media propaganda." Given all this, it's unsurprising that we sensed trouble in the Oval Office when Musk publicly slammed a Trump-supported project on the social media platform.