Last Wednesday, the richest man in the world logged on to the social media platform he owns and issued an ominous threat.
“Live by the sword, die by the sword,” Elon Musk wrote. “Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets…”
What set him off was a story in Politico reporting that if Democrats win control of Congress next week, they plan to investigate him: his time running DOGE, the federal contracts his companies hold, and reports that he ordered Starlink service slowed for Ukraine’s military. When journalist Kara Swisher suggested on her podcast that he could end up facing legal trouble, he shot back that she “really wants to go to prison.”
To recap, a man whose company is paid billions of dollars by the federal government is warning members of Congress that if they look into how he got that money, he will come after them, and after whoever he decides is behind them.
And he isn’t just posting. He’s paying.
The Wall Street Journal captured it in a single chart. One line belongs to George Soros, the liberal megadonor who has spent the better part of two decades as the right’s favorite villain. It climbs slowly, step by step, over more than twenty years, to roughly $624 million. The other line belongs to Musk. For twenty years, it sits flat at zero. Then, around 2024, it turns and shoots almost straight up, past Soros, to roughly $759 million. Two decades of Soros, overtaken in about two years.
According to a Washington Post analysis of federal filings, Musk has now put about $446 million into this year’s midterm elections alone. That’s the most any individual donor has ever given. It’s well beyond the roughly $290 million he spent electing Donald Trump in 2024. In September, he gave $158 million to the main super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates in just two checks. He’s put another $10 million into a group backing Ken Paxton in Texas.
We have never seen anything like this. And we absolutely should not accept it.
Money has distorted American politics for a long time, and both parties have their megadonors. I spent years in Congress watching how much time members spent dialing for dollars instead of doing their jobs, and how much influence followed the checks. If you’ve ever felt like Washington listens more to the people with money than to people like you, you’re not imagining it. That’s why broad campaign finance reform is needed.
I also believe companies and the people who run them have a right to take part in our political process. That’s part of living in a free country. This column isn’t about that.
This is about something different, and it’s much more dangerous.
Buying the Government That Pays You
Elon Musk isn’t just the richest man in the world. He got there, in large part, with the help of the American taxpayer. SpaceX has received more than $20 billion in federal contracts, with NASA and the Pentagon among its biggest customers. Starlink has become essential infrastructure for our military and our allies. His companies depend on decisions made by the very government he’s now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shape.
Think about what that means. The man whose company is paid billions by the federal government is spending a fortune to decide who runs the federal government. The senators he helps elect will vote on defense budgets that include his contracts. The agencies that regulate his companies answer to the president he helped put in office. Even if every one of those decisions were made in good faith, how could anyone know?
Here’s the part most people don’t realize: we already decided, decades ago, that this kind of thing is wrong.
For more than 75 years, federal law has barred government contractors from making political contributions. The whole point is to avoid even the appearance that taxpayer-funded contracts are for sale. Courts have upheld that ban even as they’ve struck down other campaign finance laws. Regulators have enforced it against contractors who tried to give to super PACs.
So how is Musk allowed to do this? Because of a loophole. The ban covers the company holding the contract, and federal regulators read it narrowly. In their view, Musk’s spending doesn’t count, because it comes from him as an individual rather than from SpaceX or Tesla. The company can’t spend a dime.
But the man who controls the company can spend nearly half a billion dollars in a single election.
Sell to It or Buy It. Not Both.
I support sweeping campaign finance reform. But the fix for this particular problem isn’t radical, and we don’t have to start from scratch because some states already do it.
New Jersey has a pay-to-play law that doesn’t stop at the company holding the contract. It covers the company’s principal owners, officers, and directors, and anyone who controls 10 percent or more of the business.
Connecticut goes further, covering any shareholder with a stake of 5 percent or more.
Both laws were passed after real scandals, by legislators who saw what happens when contracts and campaign cash get tangled together. And they’ve worked. New Jersey’s own election watchdog said its law was achieving exactly what it was meant to do: reducing political contributions from the people doing business with the government.
Congress should do the same thing at the federal level. Extend the existing contractor ban to cover the owners, executives, and major shareholders of companies that take big federal contracts. Apply it to everyone, on the left and the right, no matter which party they support.
Nobody needs to take anything away from Elon Musk. This is just a very reasonable choice: if you want to keep selling to the United States government, you don’t get to buy it too. If you’d rather spend unlimited money on elections, you’re free to stop bidding on taxpayer contracts.
Pick one.
What Money Can’t Buy
Elon Musk can buy a lot of things. He can buy television ads in every market in America. He can buy a social media platform and tilt it toward the candidates he likes. He can fund a get-out-the-vote operation bigger than some political parties.
What he can’t buy is your vote. Not unless you let him.
A week from now, Americans will decide this election, not Elon Musk. Every ad he pays for still has to convince a person. Every dollar he spends still has to get past the voter in the booth. That’s the one place in American democracy where the richest man in the world and a retired schoolteacher in Ohio count exactly the same.
So show up. Bring someone with you. And then let’s get to work making sure that no one, no matter how rich, can ever again buy the government that pays them.
— Adam
Get rid of Citizens United, what a scam! Raise the limits of the number of Supreme Court judges ASAP. Fight fire with Fire! This ruling was the bane of freedom!
You bet we do! If Dems take over both Houses, I hope there are massive investigations and indictments into what this trillionaire and every Congressional Representative has done to control our elections. Enough is enough.