The short-term dangers of Elon Musk’s power grab in the new Trump administration increase by the day. Already his loyalists at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have seized access to the government’s payment system — for decades the province of nonpolitical civil servants — and helped push unilateral shutdowns of congressionally authorized agencies. Unvetted engineers from his and his friends’ companies are pulling on purse strings at everything from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the State Department. And the use of “deferred resignations” and other efforts to encourage federal workforce attrition are straight out of the playbook Musk used after he purchased Twitter in 2022.
Various lawsuits are underway to block these efforts, but whatever happens, Musk’s prominence must change how Democrats approach not just 2026 and 2028, but politics for the foreseeable future.
Musk’s political standing has become increasingly central to his net worth.
Decades of widening inequality and decreasing campaign finance regulation have reached their natural conclusion: Oligarchs like Musk can and will destabilize the democratic system to preserve their influence. Unless Democrats wish to unilaterally disarm, they have no choice but to face the billionaires head on and break their power.
Musk is not the first billionaire to exert influence over politicians, but never in American history have we seen wealth of this size so dependent on one individual’s political influence. SpaceX already has billions in government contracts, and it was tangling with multiple government regulators before the new administration took over. DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence, as New York magazine technology columnist John Herrman points out, is a golden opportunity for Musk’s xAI to catch up to competitors like OpenAI, which Musk is now hoping to purchase. His cheerleading for shuttering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comes less than two weeks after X announced a deal with Visa to provide its users peer-to-peer payments services — which are regulated by the CFPB.
And speaking of X, Musk’s political standing has become increasingly central to his net worth. Despite his public claims that slashing X’s staff was a great success, the site’s value collapsed 70% to 80%. “Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even,” Musk wrote to X’s staff in a January email, according to The Wall Street Journal. But suddenly, advertisers are signaling plans to return to the site, and already one government agency (the National Transportation Safety Bureau) has moved all its updates to X.
Likewise, Tesla’s stock skyrocketed after the 2024 election, despite its underwhelming fourth quarter’s continuing into early 2025. While other highly visible brands make every effort to avoid ticking off one entire side of the political divide, Musk has only doubled down on antagonizing liberal customers — the demographic more likely to buy electric vehicles — not just in the United States, but around the world. With Tesla shares and options making up 60% of his net worth, preserving his political influence is essential to keeping that share price up.
In short, Musk does not just want Republicans and MAGA to remain in power. He needs them in power and loyal to him — forever. The world’s richest man is committed to single-party governance going forward. He is both considerably younger than Donald Trump and far better resourced.
Any Democratic platform, then, must have a plan to confront and diminish Musk’s power.
In the near term, as Liberal Currents’ Adam Gurri suggests, “any state government that can be persuaded that they ought to step in where the federal executive government has abandoned its duty and punish Musk for breaking crucial laws should seize any assets he has there.”
On Capitol Hill, Democrats can refuse to make a government funding deal so long as an unelected billionaire is interfering with the government for his own benefit. And they should hammer away at the message that Trump is selling out the government to oligarchs like Musk.
Voters did not ask for this — a recent YouGov poll found that just 26% of Republicans want Musk to have “a lot” of influence — and opposition will surely only grow if Musk’s pre-election prediction of “temporary hardship” comes to pass.
But even if the country makes it through this constitutional crisis and Democrats regain power in upcoming elections, the fight is not over. Musk will not quietly back down. The conditions that permitted one man to yank the puppet strings of government staffers and GOP lawmakers alike will still be in place.
Any Democratic platform, then, must have a plan to confront and diminish Musk’s power. That includes lessening income and wealth inequality, breaking up big corporations and overhauling our campaign finance system to reduce the power of money in politics. The last in particular may run into opposition from the Supreme Court, but it is a stand worth taking. The oligarchs do not want Democrats in power again. The party must respond in kind.
