Mother Jones illustration; Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP; Matt Rourke/AP
Last fall, members of the California Coastal Commission criticized Elon Musk’s political rhetoric during a meeting in which they voted against allowing SpaceX—Musk’s rocket company—to conduct more launches. Musk, one commissioner complained, had been “hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet.”
“Incredibly inappropriate,” Musk tweeted in response. “What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a ‘coastal commission’ in California!”
The commissioners’ behavior amounted to “naked political discrimination…in violation of the rights of free speech and due process,” SpaceX has charged in its ongoing lawsuit against the agency. “Rarely has a government agency made so clear that it was exceeding its authorized mandate to punish a company for the personal political views and statements of its largest shareholder and CEO.”
I couldn’t help thinking of that incident yesterday, as Donald Trump—the man Musk once promised would protect free speech and “preserve the Constitution”—weaponized his government power against a political enemy in a way that Golden State bureaucrats could hardly dream of. And that political enemy was none other than Musk himself.
Importantly, yesterday’s meltdown seems to have grown largely out of policy and personnel disputes. In particular, Musk has enraged the White House by calling on lawmakers to sink Trump’s signature budget bill—supposedly because it would add too much to the deficit. (It would also eliminate electric vehicle incentives that benefit Tesla, though Musk insists that isn’t why he’s trying to kill the legislation.)
But as the two billionaires traded insults and allegations, it was the president who took the fight to a lawless new level. He seemingly threatened to retaliate against his former ally by cancelling the government contracts held by Musk’s companies.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Some Trump allies went even further. Steve Bannon called on Trump to “sign an executive order” seizing control of SpaceX, suspend Musk’s security clearances, and possibly have him deported from the country. “He crossed the Rubicon,” Bannon told NPR. “You can’t sit there and…try to destroy the bill. You can’t come out and say kill the president’s most important legislative occurrence.” Bannon also slammed Musk for calling for Trump’s impeachment and for attempting to link the president to Jeffrey Epstein.
Musk, of course, is not a sympathetic figure. If he got his way, Trump’s budget bill would hurt even more people than it already does. Nor is Musk anything close to a reliable defender of free speech. He’s done nothing to stop Trump from using presidential power against other political enemies. But in a democracy, politicians simply cannot be allowed to punish dissent by threatening to destroy the businesses of people who cross them—whether those businesses are media companies, law firms, or a defense contractor run by the world’s richest man.
After his felony conviction in New York last year, Trump claimed to be the victim of political persecution. “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” he said. That’s worth remembering. If Trump can do this to Elon Musk, he can do it to you.