Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX; acquired Twitter/X in 2022; spent $291M to assist Trump’s election in 2024; co-led DOGE in 2025
Background
Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born American billionaire entrepreneur, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and founder of The Boring Company and xAI. He acquired Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, rebranding it as X, and used the platform to amplify far-right content and Donald Trump’s political messaging. In 2024, he spent over $291 million through his super PAC America PAC to support Trump’s presidential campaign, the largest individual campaign expenditure in American history. Trump appointed him to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body that pursued mass federal workforce reductions and access to government data systems beginning in January 2025.
