How did Elon Musk go from Democrat donor to MAGA messiah?
Earlier this month, when Elon Musk made a gesture at Donald Trump’s post-inauguration event that forced copyeditors globally into pretzeling contortions trying to avoid describing it as a Nazi salute, it wasn’t all that out of character for the tech billionaire.
But as we noted when the MAGA-right started heavily embracing Musk back in 2022, he’s not always been the most natural fit for their politics. How did he journey from a self-described “moderate” who voted Democrat, sparred with Donald Trump and talked about climate change, to the “dark, gothic MAGA” figure we now see?
2003
Musk makes his first federal political contribution in 2003, the same year he becomes chairman of Tesla. According to Federal Election Commission records, he gave the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign $2,000 that year, and the same amount to Democratic nominee John Kerry’s presidential campaign the following year.
2007
Musk donates $2,300 to then presidential candidate Barack Obama, following that up with $4,600 to Obama’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton early in 2008. This is dwarfed by the $25,000 he donates to the National Republican Congressional Committee in February 2007. He later says he voted for Obama in 2008.
2011
Musk donates more than US$40,000 to the Obama reelection campaign and a further $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee. He says he votes for Obama in 2012.
2013
Musk, described at the time as a “billionaire environmentalist“, quits the Mark Zuckerberg-led immigration reform advocacy group Fwd.us after it funds Republican ads in support of various oil pipeline and drilling projects.
2014
In an interview with The Atlantic, Musk describes himself as “half-Republican, half-Democrat”.
2016
Musk tells CNBC that then candidate Donald Trump “is not the right guy” for the upcoming presidential election. “He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”
Musk donates $5,000 to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2015 and describes her environmental policies as “the right ones”. He says he votes for Clinton in 2016. It doesn’t stop him from joining Trump’s business advisory council in December.
2017
Musk ups his donations to Republicans: $39,600 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and $50,000 to Californian Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy. In June, Musk quits the advisory councils after the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Musk is also critical of the administration’s travel ban against several majority-Muslim countries.
2018
In July he tweets: “To be clear, I am not a conservative. Am registered independent & politically moderate. Doesn’t mean I’m moderate about all issues. Humanitarian issues are extremely important to me & I don’t understand why they are not important to everyone.”
2020
Musk donates to neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden’s presidential campaigns, though he does give modest amounts to both Republican and Democrat candidates for other offices. The previous year he had supported then Democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang, primarily over Yang’s support of a universal basic income.
He says he votes for Joe Biden in 2020.
“Pronouns suck,” Musk tweets later that year, as well as “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic [sic} nightmare”.
2021
The Biden administration holds an electric vehicles summit. Representatives of Tesla, the biggest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, are not invited, seemingly because of the company’s anti-union stance.
2022
In April, Musk’s transgender daughter files court documents applying to change her name, saying she no longer wants to “be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”.
In May, Musk tweets: “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”
In July, Trump uses his Truth Social platform to call Twitter — which Musk had tried to buy and was at the time trying to back out of —“worthless”. Musk tweets that Trump should “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset”.
Soon after the takeover of Twitter in November, Musk advocates a vote for the Republicans in the then upcoming midterms, ostensibly in the name of balance: “I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.”
Also in November, Musk says he’s “disappointed” by the Biden administration and would like a “sensible and centrist” candidate for president in 2024. Asked if he would back Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis if he runs, Musk says yes.
Over the next few months, Twitter (soon renamed X) is plagued by conspiracy theories and hate speech.
2023
In October, Musk shares a fake article from 2015 that argues “diversity is about getting rid of white people (and that’s a good thing)”. Musk insists it’s real.
In November, Musk replies “You have said the actual truth” to an X user who posted the following: “Jewish communties (sic) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
2024
In July he tells Jordan Peterson that his transgender daughter was “killed” by the “woke mind virus” after he was “tricked” into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures.
Musk is the biggest donor in the 2024 election campaign, spending US$277 million in support of Trump and other Republican candidates. He begins regularly attending Trump rallies. During one, he describes himself as “dark, gothic MAGA“.
2025
In late January, Musk appears via video at a rally held by far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party in the eastern city of Halle. He calls the party “the best hope for the future of Germany” and advises against letting multiculturalism “dilute everything”.
In February, Musk echoes the Trump line that diversity hiring policies in some way contributed to the fatal collision of an American Airlines passenger jet and a military helicopter.
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