Donald Trump Finally Addressed Elon Musk's Alleged Drug Use And Apparently Thinks "He's Fantastic"
President Donald Trump appears indifferent to the alleged drug use of one of his top advisers.
The New York Times reported Friday that Elon Musk was regularly consuming ketamine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, Ambien, Adderall and other drugs while on the campaign trail with Trump. The newspaper said it based its report on private messages it obtained, along with interviews with 'more than a dozen people' who know Musk.
It's unclear whether his drug use changed once he took his place at the helm of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative that has fired thousands of federal staffers and gutted key agencies under the stated aim of curbing wasteful spending. He officially left his role with DOGE last week.
Trump appeared not to care about this when asked Friday by a reporter if the reported drug use troubled him.
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'I'm not troubled by anything with Elon,' he said at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. 'I think he's fantastic. Did a great job. And, you know, DOGE continues. And by the time he's finished, we'll have numbers that'll knock your socks off.'
CNN / Via Twitter: @harryjsisson
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'He did a fantastic job,' the president added. 'And he didn't need it, he didn't need to do it.'
Musk spent a fortune to help reelect Trump and was later made a 'special government employee' to spearhead DOGE. The world's richest man then gained access, potentially illegally, to highly sensitive government data and hired a group of unvetted 20-somethings for help.
The tech billionaire has called Social Security, one of the most enduring safety nets Americans have ever had, a 'Ponzi scheme.' He also danced around onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February wielding a symbolic chainsaw to celebrate his work.
The Times reported that Musk's drug consumption ramped up around the same time he started joining Trump on the campaign trail last year, and that he regularly traveled with a medication box that held some 20 various pills.
Rather than address the allegations on Friday, Musk attacked the Times' credibility.
'Is The New York Times — is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate?' he asked. 'Is that the same organization? I think it is.'
Musk has previously admitted to taking 'a small amount' of ketamine every other week, and was famously shown smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2018.
Musk said Friday that despite his DOGE tenure being over, he hopes to remain Trump's 'friend and an adviser.'This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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This article was produced in partnership with THE CITY, a nonprofit newsroom covering New York City. On a glum Wednesday evening recently, most New Yorkers were tucked away in their apartments, avoiding the persistent drizzle. This is exactly the scenario Mohit Sani and Dylan Halper were hoping for. Halper drums a cheery knock on the door of an Upper East Side apartment. A woman named Maria steps out, pushing her yapping dog behind her. 'My name is Dylan, and this is Mohit. We're volunteers with Zohran Mamdani's campaign for mayor,' Halper begins. Just 18 years old but already a canvassing veteran, Halper is partnered up with Sani, a first-timer, so Halper takes the lead. 'Democrat or Republican?' Maria asks skeptically. She's never heard of Mamdani before. 'Democrat,' Halper reassures her, 'he wants to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized tenants.' 'That's me!' she exclaims. Soon, Maria says the magic words: 'He's got my vote.' She even thanks the two volunteers for coming. Halper and Sani are among the thousands of volunteers who are aiming to elect the 33-year-old Mamdani as the next mayor of New York City. A state Assembly member from Queens and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Mamdani is running on a platform of affordability: free buses, city-run grocery stores, universal child care and a rent freeze. So far, he's beaten expectations, emerging from a pack of progressives as a strong number two in the polls. His progressive campaign plank, delivered via slick social media videos, earned him support from the 'terminally online.' And he's maxed out his campaign contributions with individual donors: Over 27,000 people have donated to his campaign — 12,000 more than city Comptroller Brad Lander, the candidate with the next highest number of donors. To his supporters, Mamdani is a young Bernie Sanders or a socialist Barack Obama. But to his detractors, he is inexperienced, a 'show pony,' a nepo baby and even an antisemite. If elected, Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor of New York, and his views on what he unapologetically refers to as a genocide in Gaza have made him vulnerable to attacks from pro-Israel candidates — the mainstream position for NYC politicians, who have made visits to Israel part and parcel of the job. And he's still lagging former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been polling first in the contest before he even entered it and has maintained a solid lead since, although a recent Emerson poll has Mamdani closing the gap to single digits in the final round of a ranked choice voting tally. Cuomo has raised the most money and is backed by well-funded local super PACs called independent expenditure groups. But the Mamdani campaign is banking on one thing to set them apart: their ground game. According to the campaign, nearly 30,000 people have signed up to canvass, and they've knocked on more than 750,000 doors. Mamdani has called it 'the largest volunteer operation in NYC history.' It's certainly the largest one happening this election cycle. Mamdani's canvassers are in every borough, every night of the week. It can be a thankless task. In the city, volunteers must work their way into apartment buildings, past doormen and buzzer systems — often only to find themselves on the ground floor of one of New York's infamous walk-ups. And more often than not, no one is home. But that does not discourage Halper and Sani. Halper, a member of the DSA like Mamdani, is inspired by the candidate's vision for New York City. But like many other volunteers, he's not immune to the pull of something much more tangible — merch. All Mamdani volunteers receive a 'ZetroCard' — it looks like a MetroCard, but with spaces on the back to mark how many times they've canvassed. Halper has heard that if he fills out the card fast enough, he'll get a poster — a coveted keepsake that he can't get anywhere else. In fact, none of the campaign's swag is available for purchase — a result of New York City's campaign finance laws, according to Mamdani spokesperson Andrew Epstein. It's turned Zohran-branded items into cult collectibles — like vibrant yellow bandanas decorated with classic NYC iconography such as pigeons and hot dogs — worn by volunteers or tied onto their tote bags. And the only way to get one is to show up — something the campaign makes very easy to do. 'I've thought about volunteering for other things, and no one replies to your emails, or you have to apply and go do this thing, and then they only have one shift a week — and it's when you work,' said Anna Henderson, 25. But the Mamdani signups are simple and numerous: 'When I decided to do it, I just clicked on a day I could go in my neighborhood and just went,' Henderson said. Now, she's a seasoned Lower East Side canvasser. The low barrier to entry — and the opportunity to canvass in your own neighborhood — has benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, volunteers can pull in their own neighborhood-specific information, like a local bus that was free due to Mamdani's legislation. On the other, it leaves some neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Astoria canvass-dense, while the entire South Bronx has no canvasses at all. One field lead in The Bronx, Maxwell Dickinson, ventured out on a Saturday afternoon with a diverse group of volunteers, including multiple people over 40, a vital demographic Mamdani needs but has not yet cornered. Originally from Miami, Dickinson now lives in Riverdale. He likes to open his canvassing conversations with Mamdani's free bus platform and mentions universal child care if he sees a kid in the apartment. 'Personally, I've never mentioned that he's in the DSA, especially being from Miami,' Dickinson said, referring to that city's socialism-skeptical Cuban population. 'But maybe that's me being paranoid.' The Bronx canvassers know that their borough is being underserved. Over coffee and pancakes at a diner, they chat after the canvass about ways to expand their operation. One volunteer said she thinks Parkchester would be receptive to Mamdani because of its large Bengali population. Another suggested that the campaign partner with local organizations to help get the word out. 'You need people who are from there,' Dickinson agreed. Mamdani is following in the footsteps — literally — of another NYC Democratic Socialist: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez touted her ground game as essential to her defeat of incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley. Her worn-down shoes, once displayed in a Cornell museum, became a symbol of how speaking to people face-to-face could make the difference for underdog candidates. (Ocasio-Cortez has not yet made an endorsement in the mayoral race.) 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'I feel like it's so important for young adults who have been living the dream in New York to uplift New York as well,' explained Choudry. To get young New Yorkers off of their phones and into their communities, she was part of creating Hot Girls 4 Zohran. The organization, which is not affiliated with the campaign, hosts picnics, postering sessions, raves, fundraisers and, of course, canvasses. Bright and early on a Sunday morning, 15 of the Hot Girls chatted and cheered as they made their way down Central Park West, papering lampposts with pink posters that paired a Mamdani plank with an instruction not to rank Cuomo — a position the official canvassers take, as well. 'Cuomo's literally hiding from New Yorkers because he knows if he's confronted about his platform, he's screwed,' one said, taping a poster. Cuomo has appeared at very few candidate forums, and is not taking an on-the-street campaign approach. 'I saw something like 'New York deserves a hot mayor,' and that's true. Hot girls deserve a hot mayor.' Compared to Mamdani and most of the field, Cuomo has avoided many public appearances, and for some, the sexual harassment allegations that drove him out of office — which Cuomo continues to deny — may be disqualifying. But his campaign has amassed a formidable slate of boosters. Cuomo has picked up major endorsements from large unions — even those who called for his resignation in 2021 — whose money, influence and members go a long way in city elections. He's also focused on courting Black clergy members in a bid to win over a demographic that helped propel Mayor Eric Adams to victory last cycle. 'The benefits of what he's doing is to maintain a frontrunner status — to not let opponents attack you personally,' explained political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. 'They're empty voices talking into a vacuum, and he's not responding to them, which makes them less consequential.' Of course, the canvassers want Mamdani to win. And increasingly, at least to the volunteers, his campaign seems like less of a long shot. 'I am not under any illusions that he has it in the bag,' said Henderson from the Lower East Side. 'But I don't think it's impossible. It doesn't feel like a lost cause,' she said. 'I guess I'm canvass-pilled.' After his first time canvassing, the experience on the Upper East Side has left Sani more energized than when he began. 'I look at my past self, and I see someone who watched John Oliver, watched 'The Daily Show,' watched Hasan Minhaj, and I felt politically active — but when I look back, I did nothing,' Sani mused. 'I was angry all day, but nothing happened from that anger.' 'Now, I do not watch John Oliver, I do not watch 'The Daily Show,' I do not watch Hasan Minhaj. And I'm a thousand times more politically active,' he continued. 'And then I can go to bed at night, and I'm not stressed existentially about it.' But inspiring 29,000 canvassers may not be enough. With early voting starting on June 14 and primary day just three weeks away, the volunteer army still has a lot of work to do to inspire voters — and it's running out of time. Inside the cramped vestibule of an Upper East Side apartment, Sani hits the buzzer. He's pushed a few so far, with no answer. But this time, a garbled voice comes from the other side, asking: Who's there? 'I'm here to talk about Zohran,' Sani says, rushing through the words. But the voice on the other end is confused: 'What?' 'I'm here to talk to tenants about Zohran Mamdani?' Sani tries again. No acknowledgement. One last try: 'I'm here to talk about the election?' 'Oh,' says the voice on the other end, sounding disappointed. 'You woke me up. I was sleeping.' 'I'm sorry for waking you up,' Sani says. He's genuinely contrite and, turning to Halper, asks, 'Did I do something wrong?'
