Elon Musk, the largest donor in the 2024 presidential campaign, stated on Tuesday that he intends to reduce his political contributions.
“I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” he said in a video interview with Bloomberg News at the Qatar Economic Forum. “I think I’ve done enough.”
When asked if spending less on politics was driven by any blowback he’s weathered in the Trump administration, Musk said: “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future. I will do it. But I don’t currently see a reason.”
Elon Musk, the world’s richest individual, contributed nearly $300 million to President Trump’s campaign, making him one of Trump’s top political donors and a symbolically powerful ally.
Trump elevated Musk to a prominent role in his administration, a dynamic that was evident during an early Cabinet meeting where Musk took center stage, with department secretaries watching on cautiously.
Musk has since appeared alongside the president in the Oval Office to promote his work with the U.S. DOGE Service—an initiative aimed at aggressively reducing federal government spending. The program has led to the layoffs of thousands of federal employees and the dismantling of entire agencies.
The effort has faced sharp scrutiny. Researchers and government watchdog groups have questioned whether DOGE is truly eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse,” claiming that its reported savings frequently include exaggerations, double-counting, and other inconsistencies.
Musk has countered that he and his DOGE team have found real savings and a great deal of fraud stemming from the trillions of dollars the U.S. spends annually.
On a recent call with Tesla investors, amid plummeting sales and profits in the first quarter of the year, Elon Musk said he was scaling back his full-time role at the White House to refocus on the struggling electric vehicle company. Once championed by liberals, Tesla has seen a sharp decline in support from the left.
