July 2, 2025 - 9:00pm
After a three-week hiatus, Elon Musk has returned to the political fray. Over the last three days, the world’s richest man has attacked Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” and pledged to bankroll primary challengers against any so-called deficit hawks who vote for it.
In doing so, Musk has thrown his support behind Thomas Massie, the Congressman for Kentucky’s 4th District. Massie is an outlier in Washington — a principled libertarian and fiscal hawk who rejects money from major institutional donors and lobbies. He’s even maintained a long-running feud with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), prompting the group to fund a $300,000 ad campaign against him. So far, such efforts have failed because Massie remains genuinely popular with his constituents.
As a resolute critic of the BBB, Massie has also been subjected to escalating attacks from the President, culminating in Trump openly stating that he will organize a serious primary challenge to finally rid himself of this troublesome Congressman. But these attacks on Massie have never been particularly popular inside the MAGA base; one only has to look at the responses to Trump’s posts on Massie to see that even some of his own supporters are not on board with these attacks.
The fact is that the issues Massie claims to care about — balancing the budget and reducing the deficit — were once core MAGA talking points, at least until the BBB revealed the movement’s shift in priorities. By continuing to champion fiscal restraint, Massie has therefore been branded a traitor by some. But to others, he’s simply being ideologically consistent — and honest. Not everyone, it turns out, is willing to pretend that “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.”
Just as there has been a massive about-face in recent budget deficit rhetoric, so too has the Right’s view on Elon Musk. A couple of months ago, the Tesla CEO was a political genius, a visionary, a captain of industry, and a great statesman in the making. Yet once Musk fell out with Trump, he immediately was recast as an irrelevant, bumbling grifter. But if Musk was once massively overhyped and oversold, the danger now is that he is prematurely dismissed or underestimated.
While the Tesla CEO may lack sharp political instincts, an alliance with someone like Thomas Massie makes strategic sense for both. Massie is popular with his base and, should the BBB unravel, he’d be well-positioned to seize the moment. Musk, by contrast, is not especially popular, but he has what Massie and others lack: deep pockets and a clear willingness to use them. That combination could prove potent, especially if others follow suit.
Though the BBB itself looks likely to squeak across the finish line, Musk’s return to politics might end up distorting the 2026 midterms, turning what should be a fight against the Democrats into various well-funded internecine struggles and primaries. Now, Musk has the motive, the opportunity, and the means to fund one side in this political proxy war. Massie might just be the beginning.
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