Elon Musk says he will spend a ‘lot less’ on politics

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Elon Musk, the US’s largest political donor, said he intends to spend a “lot less” on political campaigns in the future, in a blow to Donald Trump loyalists ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The world’s richest man, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, said he thought he had “done enough” donating to political causes.

Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, Musk said: “I’m going to do a lot less [political spending] in the future”, adding that he did not “currently see a reason” to sustain the level of support he has given conservative candidates over the past year.

The remarks come after Musk’s most recent foray into electoral politics ended in defeat. The Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate he backed with more than $25mn lost by 10 percentage points in April, after Democrats turned the race into a referendum on the Trump administration and Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Soon after the defeat, Musk — whom polls show is more unpopular than Trump — announced he was stepping back from Doge to spend more time running Tesla, which had suffered a sales slump in part due to protests against the government cost-cutting initiative.

Despite the setback, Musk had still been expected to be a key backer of Maga-aligned Republicans in primaries and a major source of financial support for such candidates in the midterm elections next year. The billionaire has set-up a political action committee to put money into races across the US.

The Tesla chief executive also reiterated on Tuesday that he expected to remain in charge of the electric car company for the foreseeable future. The company denied recent reports that members of Tesla’s board had explored the option of appointing a successor.

But Musk, who is fighting a legal battle over a roughly $100bn pay package at Tesla, said he believed “there should be compensation . . . [when] something incredible was done”.

He also suggested his commitment to the company was at least somewhat contingent on pay and whether the shares he is awarded give him sufficient control of the company.

Additional reporting by Chloe Cornish