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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
GOP downplays Trump-Musk feud's impact on midterms
Republicans are downplaying concerns that the feud between President Trump and Elon Musk will hamper the party's chances of defending their majorities in the House and the Senate next year. In the midst of the escalating war of words on Thursday, Musk claimed Trump would not have won the White House without him last year and floated the idea of launching a third party. Musk has also threatened to use his financial war chest and platform to challenge Republicans backing Trump's legislative agenda. However, many Republicans say Trump's influence within the party is strong enough to withstand any kind of political challenge from Musk. Others even say they still think Musk is a part of their team. 'I think if you're a Republican in a primary and you have Trump's support and Elon's opposition, you're going to be okay,' said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), adding that the president would eclipse Musk 'by a 10 or 100-fold.' Musk notably took credit for Trump's White House during his keyboard war with Trump on Thursday, claiming Democrats would control the House and hold a 51 to 49 majority in the Senate. The billionaire was the single largest donor in the 2024 general election, spending nearly $300 million. Musk's political action committee, America PAC, supported Trump and a number of Republicans running in key congressional races. The PAC has remained active during Trump's second administration, spending over $18 million in a closely watched race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. The group has also promoted Trump's work this cycle, releasing its first television ad following Trump's joint address to Congress earlier this year. But despite the resources poured into Wisconsin, the Democratic-backed candidate won the court seat in what was described by critics as an embarrassment for Musk. America PAC spent millions in 18 competitive House races. Ten of the PAC's backed GOP House candidates won their elections, while the other 8 lost. 'America PAC spent $20 million on House races but none of that was super consequential— none of it was on TV, just digital and canvassing,' said one national Republican operative, who noted Musk was still on the GOP 'team.' Speaker Mike Johnson called Musk 'a big contributor in the last election' in an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' on Friday, but said it was ultimately 'a whole team effort.' 'I mean, President Trump is the most consequential political figure of his generation, of modern American history. He is the one responsible for that,' Johnson said. 'But we all worked hard. We delivered the House majority. I traveled the country nonstop. I did over 360 campaign events in 250 cities and 40 states, and I logged enough miles last year to circle the globe five and a half times. I mean, I contributed to it as well. All of our House Republicans did.' Democrats have spent much of the first half of this year making Musk a boogeyman of sorts, painting him as out of touch with most Americans. The feud between Trump and Musk does not appear to be changing that strategy going into the midterms. 'Democrats are going to win by highlighting the fact that Republicans are failing at lowering costs because they are too busy pushing tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations, while making the rest of us pay for them,' said Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 'Elon is, and forever will be, an instantly-recognizable manifestation of the fact that House Republicans don't work for the American people, they work for the billionaires.' Some Republicans remain weary of Musk, noting his massive online following that is made up of over 220 million followers on his platform X. Musk's views on the debt are widely shared by fiscally conservative voters. 'If Musk makes the national debt and deficit his defining issue and starts backing candidates who share that focus, it could create a real fracture inside the GOP. Trump's economic agenda has never been about fiscal restraint,' said a former White House communications aide who worked in the first Trump administration. 'If Musk begins channeling serious money into candidates who want to draw a hard line on spending and debt, you could see a Freedom Caucus 2.0 emerge — this time with financial firepower and a mandate to push back on Trump and Speaker Johnson's spending ambitions,' the aide said. But Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, threw cold water on the notion that the feud could jeopardize Republicans in the midterms. 'No, I don't think so. Now everybody's got to decide that. We all have one vote and we'll see,' Norman told The Hill. 'But I hope he keeps doing what he's doing and the team of people he put together, I want to do it statewide. Each state, I would do just what he's done with the federal government,' he added, referring to Musk's leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) noted the importance of all of Trump's 2024 donors and supporters, including Musk, but suggested the two take their feud offline. 'I think every single American that voted for us deserves credit and Elon Musk is one vote,' Greene told reporters. 'I've said that every single vote and every single donor matters whether they've donated a dollar or hundreds of millions of dollars.' 'I don't think lashing out on the internet is the way to handle any kind of disagreement, especially when you have each other's cell phones,' she said. –Alex Gangitano and Emily Brooks contributed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Automotive
- The Hill
GOP downplays Trump-Musk feud's impact on midterms
Republicans are downplaying concerns that the feud between President Trump and Elon Musk will hamper the party's chances of defending their majorities in the House and the Senate next year. In the midst of the escalating war of words on Thursday, Musk claimed Trump would not have won the White House without him last year and floated the idea of launching a third party. Musk has also threatened to use his financial war chest and platform to challenge Republicans backing Trump's legislative agenda. However, many Republicans say Trump's influence within the party is strong enough to withstand any kind of political challenge from Musk. Others even say they still think Musk is a part of their team. 'I think if you're a Republican in a primary and you have Trump's support and Elon's opposition, you're going to be okay,' said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), adding that the president would eclipse Musk 'by a 10 or 100-fold.' Musk notably took credit for Trump's White House during his keyboard war with Trump on Thursday, claiming Democrats would control the House and hold a 51 to 49 majority in the Senate. The billionaire was the single largest donor in the 2024 general election, spending nearly $300 million. Musk's political action committee, America PAC, supported Trump and a number of Republicans running in key congressional races. The PAC has remained active during Trump's second administration, spending over $18 million in a closely watched race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. The group has also promoted Trump's work this cycle, releasing its first television ad following Trump's joint address to Congress earlier this year. But despite the resources poured into Wisconsin, the Democratic-backed candidate won the court seat in what was described by critics as an embarrassment for Musk. America PAC spent millions in 18 competitive House races. Ten of the PAC's backed GOP House candidates won their elections, while the other 8 lost. 'America PAC spent $20 million on House races but none of that was super consequential— none of it was on TV, just digital and canvassing,' said one national Republican operative, who noted Musk was still on the GOP 'team.' Speaker Mike Johnson called Musk 'a big contributor in the last election' in an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' on Friday, but said it was ultimately 'a whole team effort.' 'I mean, President Trump is the most consequential political figure of his generation, of modern American history. He is the one responsible for that,' Johnson said. 'But we all worked hard. We delivered the House majority. I traveled the country nonstop. I did over 360 campaign events in 250 cities and 40 states, and I logged enough miles last year to circle the globe five and a half times. I mean, I contributed to it as well. All of our House Republicans did.' Democrats have spent much of the first half of this year making Musk a boogeyman of sorts, painting him as out of touch with most Americans. The feud between Trump and Musk does not appear to be changing that strategy going into the midterms. 'Democrats are going to win by highlighting the fact that Republicans are failing at lowering costs because they are too busy pushing tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations, while making the rest of us pay for them,' said Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 'Elon is, and forever will be, an instantly-recognizable manifestation of the fact that House Republicans don't work for the American people, they work for the billionaires.' Some Republicans remain weary of Musk, noting his massive online following that is made up of over 220 million followers on his platform X. Musk's views on the debt are widely shared by fiscally conservative voters. 'If Musk makes the national debt and deficit his defining issue and starts backing candidates who share that focus, it could create a real fracture inside the GOP. Trump's economic agenda has never been about fiscal restraint,' said a former White House communications aide who worked in the first Trump administration. 'If Musk begins channeling serious money into candidates who want to draw a hard line on spending and debt, you could see a Freedom Caucus 2.0 emerge — this time with financial firepower and a mandate to push back on Trump and Speaker Johnson's spending ambitions,' the aide said. But Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, threw cold water on the notion that the feud could jeopardize Republicans in the midterms. 'No, I don't think so. Now everybody's got to decide that. We all have one vote and we'll see,' Norman told The Hill. 'But I hope he keeps doing what he's doing and the team of people he put together, I want to do it statewide. Each state, I would do just what he's done with the federal government,' he added, referring to Musk's leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) noted the importance of all of Trump's 2024 donors and supporters, including Musk, but suggested the two take their feud offline. 'I think every single American that voted for us deserves credit and Elon Musk is one vote,' Greene told reporters. 'I've said that every single vote and every single donor matters whether they've donated a dollar or hundreds of millions of dollars.' 'I don't think lashing out on the internet is the way to handle any kind of disagreement, especially when you have each other's cell phones,' she said. –Alex Gangitano and Emily Brooks contributed.
CBS News
4 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Elon Musk suggests creating a new political party amid Trump rift
Elon Musk publicly mused about creating a new political party this week, an idea that could escalate the billionaire's feud with his onetime ally President Trump. Musk first floated the idea on Thursday. In between jabs at Mr. Trump, the billionaire posted a poll to X asking his 220 million followers if they think it's "time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle." A day later, Musk noted that 80% of respondents to the poll backed the idea. "This is fate," he wrote Friday evening. Musk then endorsed a fan's suggestion that he name it the "America Party." The name bears a resemblance to America PAC, the political action committee founded by Musk last year that was his main vehicle for spending $239 million to help elect Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates in 2024. Starting a new political party is easier said than done. The Democratic and Republican parties, and some of the larger third parties, already have ballot access in virtually every state, so an upstart party that hopes to be competitive would need to navigate a web of state-by-state rules to get its candidates on the ballot. And while Musk — the world's richest person — is legally allowed to pour unlimited money into his America PAC because it is organized as an independent super PAC, donations to formal political parties are capped at well under $1 million, per the Federal Election Commission's contribution limits for 2025-2026 federal elections. It's not clear how serious Musk is about the idea of breaking with the Republican Party. Later Friday, the billionaire replied "Ok" to a person who argued "the best bang for your buck" is to get involved in GOP primaries. He also seemed to entertain a post that suggested reforming one of the main parties "from the inside out" instead of starting a third party, replying "Hmm." Still, Musk's musings about starting a new political party could signal he plans to stay engaged in politics, and may try to challenge Mr. Trump's influence. Musk said last month he planned on dialing back his political spending generally, saying at the time that he didn't "see a reason" to keep putting his money into politics, though he left open the possibility of getting involved again. His time leading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency also came to an end last week, with Mr. Trump publicly expressing support. But Musk began directly challenging Mr. Trump on Tuesday, calling the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a sprawling domestic policy bill backed by Mr. Trump — a "disgusting abomination" and urging lawmakers to vote against it. The two men publicly sparred on Thursday, with Mr. Trump threatening to cut off subsidies to Musk's companies, while Musk claimed the president was ungrateful for the hundreds of millions he poured into helping the 2024 Trump campaign. Musk entered the congressional fray at a delicate moment for the GOP. The party's domestic policy bill narrowly passed the House last month, but it still needs to go through the Senate, and if the upper chamber makes any changes, it will need to head back to the House again. Musk offered a pointed suggestion Thursday afternoon to any congressional Republicans who may be unsure of whether to side with him or the president, writing on X: "Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years."
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Trump-Musk feud: Who deserves the most credit for president's resounding 2024 White House win?
As the war of words between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk rages, it's sparked a new debate over how decisive the world's richest person was in helping Trump recapture the White House in the 2024 election. The president, speaking with reporters, argued, "I think I would have won" even without Musk's help on the campaign trail last year. Musk, firing back, argued that "without me, Trump would have lost the election." While the once-strong alliance between Trump and Musk rapidly disintegrated on Thursday as the two traded barbs over the president's "big, beautiful" tax cuts and spending bill, the zingers also extended to other topics, including last year's presidential election. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, went all in for Trump last summer and autumn. He endorsed the GOP presidential nominee in July right after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk became the top donor of the 2024 election cycle, dishing out nearly $300 million in support of Trump's bid through America PAC, a Trump-aligned super PAC. Much of the money was used for get-out-the-vote efforts and ads in the crucial battleground states as Trump and Kamala Harris faced off for the presidency. Musk concentrated much of his efforts on Pennsylvania. He joined Trump for the first time on the campaign trail at an Oct. 5 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, then held five town halls in the Keystone State later in October. And Musk set up a war room of sorts in Pittsburgh. Trump, mentioning how Musk campaigned for him in Pennsylvania, pointed to his White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who was co-chair of Trump's 2024 campaign. The president noted that "Susie would say I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway." Musk, apparently watching Trump's comments in real time, quickly fired back on X, which Musk renamed after buying Twitter. "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate," Musk wrote. "Such ingratitude." Veteran Republican strategist John Brabender, who served as a media consultant to the 2024 Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital that "Elon and many others played an important role in helping the president win states all across America." "But the bottom line is there's only one constant and one person who is most responsible, by far, and that's President Trump. That's who people voted for," Brabender added. Longtime Republican consultant Dave Carney, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns over the past few decades, said the president and Musk are both right. Carney, who steered Preserve America, another top-spending Trump-aligned super PAC, told Fox News that Trump "might have won without the help, but you can't underestimate how important that help was." Pointing to Preserve America, Musk's America PAC and MAGA Inc, which was the main Trump-aligned super PAC, Carney said they all deserved "a tremendous amount of credit" and "just made it easier" for Trump to sweep all seven battleground states and win the White House. Carney also highlighted the Musk-aligned super PAC's "unprecedented field effort, mail and other communications … to turn out these low-propensity Trump voters." Tom Eddy, the GOP chairman in Erie County, a longtime crucial swing county in the northwestern corner of battleground Pennsylvania, told Fox News that Musk "helped Trump significantly. I really think so. He had money, and he had a name." But Eddy added that "my gut feeling would be that Trump is basically saying, 'Look. I won the election. These people helped me, but I won.' That's what he's trying to bring across." In battleground Michigan, veteran Republican strategist Dennis Lennox pointed to Musk's comments and told Fox News "it's incredibly arrogant to say that, but it's probably true."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Musk-Trump fight blows up a critical alliance in American politics
Elon Musk said Thursday that President Donald Trump couldn't have won a second term without his help, a claim that can't be easily proven or disproven. What's clear is Trump's campaign relied on him heavily. Last year, Trump tapped Musk, the world's wealthiest person, to essentially lead his campaign's ground operation in key battleground states like Pennsylvania. The more than $290 million that the multibillionaire plowed into the 2024 election to boost both Trump and congressional Republicans made him the largest publicly disclosed donor in federal contests last year. Thursday's war of words between the two billionaires marked the implosion of a candidate-donor relationship with no precedent in American politics. And it renewed a debate about whether Musk really was as decisive in Trump's 2024 victory as he said in one post, writing: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.' 'It's incredibly arrogant to say that, but it's probably true,' said Dennis Lennox, a Republican strategist in the battleground state of Michigan. Musk and Trump capitalized on a 2024 decision by the Federal Election Commission that granted campaigns the ability to coordinate with outside political action committees on paid canvassing. Musk's America PAC spent more than $97 million on canvassing and field operations alone, federal records show – with tens of millions more going to digital ads, texting and phone calls as Musk's team worked to turn out voters on Trump's behalf in the final stretch to Election Day. Lennox listed several reasons for Trump's win in Michigan and other key states, including the public response to assassination attempts on Trump and the tumult on the Democratic ticket that saw then-Vice President Kamala Harris replace former President Joe Biden as the party's standard-bearer. But Lennox also credits Musk's use of X, the social media platform he purchased and renamed from Twitter, to amplify pro-Trump messages, as well as the try-everything strategy of the Musk operation. 'It's hard to quantify exactly what America PAC did and didn't do in the election because their effort was, literally and figuratively, throwing everything and the kitchen sink against the blue wall in hopes that something cracked through to deliver Trump a victory.' Musk's political operation didn't just knock on doors in key states. It launched a sweepstakes that offered $1 million giveaways to voters in swing states that drew legal scrutiny. Then there was Musk himself. He appeared with Trump at an October rally in Butler, Pa., the site of the first assassination attempt against Trump months earlier. He all but camped out in Pennsylvania in the final days of the campaign, hosting his own town halls with voters. Musk spoke at a rally after Trump's second inauguration and took on a high-profile role leading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, overseeing an effort to slash the size of government that fell short of Musk's originally stated goals. His star had been falling with Trump prior to his departure from government and his criticism of Trump's signature legislative package, attacks that strained their relationship and led to Thursday's public fight. And there were also signs that he didn't have the same political touch. Musk deployed many of his 2024 tactics in April's Wisconsin Supreme Court race, spending more than $20 million to boost a conservative candidate and headlining his own pre-election rally in the state. This time, his candidate lost by 10 points.
