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Musk helped kill a congressional spending bill. But much of what he spread was misinformation
By MELISSA GOLDINUpdated 3:36 PM CST, December 20, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in a torrent of more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims.
The X owner, an unelected figure, not only used his outsize influence on the platform to help sway Congress, he did so without regard for the facts and gave a preview of the role he could play in government over the next four years.
“Trump has got himself a handful with Musk,” John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said in an email. “Trump’s done this kind of thing before, blowing up a bill at the last minute. This time, though, it looks like he was afraid of Musk upstaging him. Now there’s a new social media bully in town, pushing the champion social media bully around.”
Hansen added: “We’ll see what Musk’s influence is when he runs up against reality — like when he proposes cutting off ‘wasteful’ spending for other people but not NASA contracts for Space-X.”
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