
Elon Musk recently declared he will be spending “a lot less” money on politics going forward. He told Bloomberg, “I think I’ve done enough” and that he does not “currently see a reason” to continue spending money in the political arena.
But many are positing that Musk’s step back from D.C. isn’t entirely voluntary. CNN analyst Harry Enten recently detailed the Trump-Vance campaign’s top donor’s historic unpopularity, as well as his seeming fall from favor with the president.
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“How unpopular is he? How low can you go?” Enten said, explaining that in 2017, Musk’s favorability rating was plus 24 points and now it’s at minus 19.
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“Whoa, he fell through the floor,” Enten said. “Among Democrats, the fall was even more dramatic. We’re talking about going from plus-35 points on net favorability rating (that is quite a popular guy among Democrats) but get this – now down to minus-91 points. You can’t really go lower than that. I guess you could go down to minus100 points, but he became political kryptonite.”
“He was greatly disliked by the American public and greatly, greatly, greatly disliked by Democrats – and obviously we saw that in Wisconsin when, of course, he spent all that money and then the liberal won that Supreme Court race.”
Enten is referring to the heated Wisconsin race that Judge Susan Crawford, considered the progressive candidate in the nonpartisan race, won with 54% of the vote, even though Musk spent millions of dollars trying to get her opponent elected. Crawford beat conservative judge Brad Schimel for the 10-year term on the state’s highest court. Her victory meant progressives maintained their majority on the court.
Enten went on to show how Musk’s role in the White House has affected Tesla by comparing the company with General Motors.
“General Motors, quite well-liked by the American people,” Enten said, “plus 23 points on net favorability rating. But look at Tesla, minus 20 points… It turns out that Elon Musk’s political kryptonite was also becoming kryptonite for selling cars.”
Then he went on to show how Musk’s favorability with the president is also waning, as he posted about Musk 40 times between January 20th and April 4th and since April 5th, has mentioned him zero times.
Out gay Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) recently called Musk “toxic” and “the most unlikable person in this country.”
Democrats have demanded that the president confirm Musk’s departure from the White House by May 30. Musk is classified as a “special government employee” (SGE), an official designation that is only supposed to last 130 days a year. Since Musk has been working in the White House since the president’s January 20 inauguration, that date is May 30.
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