You’ve got to hand it to Elon Musk. He is both the richest man in the world and a total fucking loser.
He’s living proof that money can’t buy you happiness, money can’t make people like you and money can’t make you cool.
It can, however, allow you to do an awful lot of damage and cause an awful lot of pain and suffering. Which is something he apparently enjoys doing.
His PAC is running ads on X that depict a bearded, purple-lipstick-wearing man applying long fake eyelashes with, “He made his plan to vote. Did you? Don’t stay home while the crazies elect radicals,” across the bottom. The accompanying text reads, “URGENT ELECTION UPDATE: The crazy liberals are ready to show up in full force and vote this election. ARE YOU? We must DEFEAT them at the polls. Make your plan ASAP!”
Is it tasteless? Yes. Does it reek of desperation? Also yes. But will it work? Honestly, I don’t know. There was a time when I thought I had at least a little understanding of the American electorate. But after electing Trump twice, I have to say that I no longer claim to know fuck all.
Musk may have had a little falling-out with Trump last year, but they’ve since hugged it out. Now Musk is back in the politics game trying to get Republicans elected. The Associated Press reports that Musk has spent over $276 million on the midterms. This includes “$158 million given to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidates, one of the largest known political donations in American history.”
That is a lot of money. Too much money for one person to have, really and definitely too much money for one person to spend trying to influence an election. But this is the U.S., where the richest people have the loudest voices. And Lord knows Musk has a big mouth.
He also really hates transgender people. In a 2024 interview with Jordan Peterson, Musk misgendered his daughter, Vivian Wilson, and said she had been “killed by the woke mind virus.”
In 2023, Musk posted “the words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform” on X.
In 2025, when Tesla dealerships were being targeted specifically because people hated Musk so much, he claimed that transgender people were the ones causing the problems.
According to Them, Musk claimed that “the probability of a trans person being violent appears to be vastly higher” than people who are cisgender. He also stated, “Hormone injections cause extreme emotional volatility. That is simply a fact.” It is not, in fact, a fact. It is something Musk made up.
Musk also shared a post by noted transphobe Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) in which she wrote, “Don’t know who needs to hear this but, Tesla’s aren’t the reason you’re trans. Stop lighting them on fire.” While nonsensical, she’s clearly blaming transgender people for committing violent acts.
To no one’s surprise, Musk is also outspoken about gender-affirming care. Erin in the Morning reports that just last month Musk posted, “Those who mutilate children should receive a death sentence,” in reference to medical professionals who provide gender-affirming care.
That the world’s richest man is pouring money into the midterm elections in an effort to retain Republican majorities in Congress is, well, bad. Trump and the Republican Party have spent so much time and effort attacking transgender people. Should they keep their majority, there is no doubt more misery ahead for transgender people.
Democrats seem to think they have the midterms locked up. If only there were recent examples of Democrats thinking they had an election in the bag only to completely eat shit on Election Day. Something like that would be so instructive. It might even stop Democrats from taking any election at any level of government anywhere in the country for granted. Hell, it could even help them become a true opposition party.
Alas.
Look, I have been a Democrat all of my life. I voted straight-ticket Democratic in the midterms here in Michigan. But I have never been so profoundly let down as I have by the way the Democrats have handled the last 10 years.
As the country has sunk deeper and deeper into a fascist hellscape, Democrats have largely just stood and watched. Some of them have even gone out of their way to embrace fascist tactics, like publicly thanking ICE or releasing campaign commercials that amplify anti-trans talking points. It makes me deeply, deeply sad.
If the Democrats do, indeed, knock Republicans from their majority in Congress, it will be because people are horrified by how much damage Republicans have caused, not because people think Democrats are going to do anything about it. Here’s hoping that Democrats surprise us all.
