Fact Check: Musk said 'Trump would have lost the election' without him
Claim:
Elon Musk posted a message on X that read, "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate."
Rating:
Amid rising tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, a former special government employee, posts on X on June 5, 2025, claimed to show a screenshot from Musk's official account in which he took credit for Trump's 2024 reelection.
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate," Musk allegedly wrote in the post.
One version of the claim shared by @PopBase (archived) quickly garnered more than 2.1 million views and 5,000 shares.
Snopes searched Musk's verified X account and found the following post (archived):
(X user @elonmusk)
He followed up with a reply (archived) that read, "Such ingratitude." Because Musk posted the words in the screenshot, the claim is correctly attributed.
Musk was replying to a post from an X user (archived), who shared a video of Trump speaking about Musk's recent opposition to the GOP's "Big Beautiful Bill."
In the video, Trump suggested he would have won Pennsylvania even if Musk had not campaigned for his reelection in the swing state and expressed his disappointment in Musk's criticism of the bill.
"I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it, he had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem with it and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate because that's billions and billions of dollars," Trump said in the video.
Musk's reply to the post quickly reignited claims that Musk helped Trump "rig" the 2024 presidential election. Snopes previously fact-checked claims that Musk's Starlink satellite network was used to tally swing-state votes during the 2024 election, allowing him to "rig" or "hack" it in favor of Trump, and rated those claims as unfounded.
Snopes reached out to the White House for a statement in response to Musk's post and is awaiting a reply.
Also on June 5, Musk posted a poll on X asking whether there should be a new political party in the U.S. to represent the "80% in the middle." The billionaire also alleged on the same day that Trump appears in unreleased government files related to deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."
X. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930667528696828120. Accessed 5 June 2025.
X. https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1930661413393207801/history. Accessed 5 June 2025.
Rascouët-Paz, Ana. "No Evidence Musk's Starlink Network Was Used To 'Rig' 2024 Election." Snopes, 13 Nov. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/musk-starlink-2024-election/.
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