Elon Musk mocks US election results after GOP defeat despite major donations
Elon Musk responded with sarcasm after Republicans lost the US midterms, despite his $500 million support. He deleted a post urging votes for the GOP.
Key Takeaways
AIAmerican billionaire Elon Musk responded with sarcasm to the results of the US midterm elections, which saw the Republican Party defeated despite his significant financial backing. Musk reportedly spent around $500 million supporting Republicans in their contest against the Democrats.
On Wednesday, Musk posted on X: “Looks like my space lasers for election interference didn’t work this time,” making a tongue-in-cheek reference to conspiracy theories circulating in US politics and media.
View the post on X
Musk also deleted a pinned post from October 29 in which he had urged voters to support Republican candidates. The deletion came after election results showed several of his endorsed candidates had lost.
The post was removed early Wednesday, almost at the same time Democrat James Talarico declared victory in a Texas House of Representatives race, defeating Republican Ken Paxton, who was the GOP candidate for the Texas Senate seat and had received strong backing from Musk during the campaign.
Although Musk was not a candidate himself, he was seen as one of the biggest losers after spending nearly half a billion dollars to help Republicans retain control of Texas—a state home to his companies Tesla and SpaceX, as well as a planned joint chip manufacturing project. His prospects diminished after Democrats secured control of both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, despite Musk urging his followers to vote Republican up to election day.
In the aftermath, SpaceX shares fell by 5.5 percent, while Tesla shares dropped 5.1 percent, both underperforming the broader market.
The Democratic Party regained control of both the House and Senate in the November 3 elections, winning 54 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 44, and flipping seven key seats in states including Texas, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Iowa.
In the House of Representatives, Democrats surpassed the majority threshold with at least 228 seats compared to 139 for Republicans, according to Associated Press estimates, while CBS News reported Democrats had reached 259 seats.