Elon Musk looks on during a Cabinet meeting March 24, 2025, at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Getty Images/TNS
Hide the chainsaws, Iowans, Elon Musk is here.
What an honor. Let’s all welcome him with a dramatic stiff-arm salute.
OK, let’s not.
Actually, it’s Musk’s money that’s visiting us. The world’s richest man and worst government efficiency expert plans to spend more than $100 million to help Republican candidates this fall. His main focus will be in hotly contested Senate races, with control of the chamber up for grabs.
Some largesse from Musk’s America PAC is already trickling into Iowa to help Republican Ashley Hinson hold a GOP Senate seat in a spirited contest against Democrat Josh Turek.
It’s heartwarming to see a trillionaire help a mere millionaire who is down on her luck. In 2024, Musk spent $290 million to help Donald Trump and Republican candidates. A mere rounding error in Muskatopia.
Musk, it has been reported, wants to change the subject in these Senate races from rising consumer prices, expensive gas and inflation to transgender issues. Clearly, this is exactly what Americans want.
A Fox News poll in April found grocery prices, gas prices, healthcare and housing are “major” problems for voters. Inflation and the economy top the list of the most important issues. Less than 1%, rounding to zero, mentioned transgender issues.
Musk is fighting a new war with the same old battle plan. Smearing transgender Americans and the politicians who back their basic civil rights helped Trump defeat Democrat Kamala Harris. Remember “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you?”
No, not you. Who do you think you are, a trillionaire?
Columnist Todd Dorman
The Gazette
But that was back when voters thought Trump would fix the economy. Now, according to the Fox poll, 56% of Americans say Trump’s policies are hurting the economy compared to just 28% who say he’s helping.
Things are not looking good for the GOP this fall. Trans-bashing may be the last missile in the depleted Republican arsenal.
And like any good Bond villain, Musk’s quest for power and influence is fueled by a revenge fantasy.
As the Washington Times tells it, Musk’s biological son Xavier changed his name to Vivian Jenna Wilson. She took her mother’s maiden name and doesn’t want anything to do with Musk.
“Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus,” Musk told Jordan Peterson, a conservative commentator. “So I lost my son, essentially … I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.”
All that’s missing is a cat in his lap, stroked menacingly.
A printed card appearing on Iowa door knobs, paid for by America PAC, accuses Turek of “Pushing woke indoctrination.” An ad running in Iowa says, according to the New York Times, “Josh Turek voted to spend our tax dollars on sex-change surgeries for children,”
The “sex-change” charge stems from Turek voting no on Senate File 496 in 2023, which requires school officials to tell parents if a kid wants to be referred to by a new name and gender at school. It was part of endless carpet bombing of the Linn-Mar school district by Hinson, who lives in the district and assailed its transgender support policies for political effect. Don’t even get her started on Bisexual Plus Awareness Week.
But SF 496 went much further than that. It banned books describing or depicting sex acts from school libraries, in many cases snaring books reflecting perspectives that might offend white, straight Christians. The bill also prohibits teachers from even mentioning LGBTQ people in their lessons through sixth grade. Because, for conservatives, the lives of LGBTQ Iowans are defined only by sex acts.
Iowa Republicans have seriously considered expanding the “don’t say gay” provision all the way through high school and expanding the book ban to cover public libraries.
But, hey, Turek gets money from rich people, too, you vicious hack!
That’s true. Wealthy people have contributed directly to Turek through individual donations capped by federal rules at $3,500 for the primary campaign and $3,500 for the general election. He received $7,000 each from the son and daughter-in-law of George Soros.
Are outside groups bankrolled by wealthy folks helping Turek? Of course. Independent expenditures in the tens of millions of dollars are supporting and opposing both Turek and Hinson. This is the system Republicans wanted.
According to Quiver Quantitative, more than $58 million has been spent on the race during this election cycle, much of it from outside groups.
But none of Turek’s donors commanded a federal agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, that sent tech bros to slash and burn federal agencies, and then lie about how much savings it achieved.
Musk bragged that DOGE could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. In the end, DOGE claimed $110 billion in savings. But the Government Accountability Office said last month that DOGE’s estimates are plagued by “issues limiting the transparency and reliability of these reported savings.” A polite version of liar, liar pants on fire.
But damage was done. The Department of Veterans Affairs cut 40,000 jobs, many held by veterans, and canceled dozens of contracts, some with veteran-owned businesses. The Social Security Administration, which serves 75 million beneficiaries, lost 14% of its workforce. The U.S. Agency for International Development disappeared. The National Weather Service was hit by Hurricane Elon.
Also, Musk is a white supremacist.
“Whites are a rapidly dying minority,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns, in January. The post received 17 million views and 150,000 likes, according to the Washington Post. The paper noted that Musk, between the fall of 2025 and April of this year, posted 166 times about race, with half using the word “white.”
In September 2025, Musk reposted a screenshot from a user who said “White people faced a choice between being conquered, enslaved, raped and genocided while being called ‘racist’ or reclaiming our nations and our dignity while being called ‘racist.’”
Musk’s reply? “Yes.”
“As far as I can tell, Musk at this point agrees with standard talking points of white supremacy,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told the Post. A magazine editor told the Post Musk’s backers have picked “money over morals.”
The fact that Musk wants Hinson to win tells you what you need to know about her and the Republican Party in 2026. He’s the sort of guy who benefits immensely from slashing taxes, dismantling regulations and accessing the highest echelons of power in our democracy. This is who Hinson and the GOP serve. The rest of us can enjoy scraps from the banquet table, if we’re good.
Musk hates empathy. He decimated U.S. humanitarian aid to hungry, sick and homeless people around the world, just for fun. People will die. He doesn’t care.
“I think this is exactly what Iowans want to see, is accountability and transparency in the federal government,” Hinson said in reaction to DOGE’s work in February 2025, according to the Des Moines Register.
SpaceX is working on a mission to Mars. It’s the sort of cold, unforgiving place where Musk could feel right at home. Yes, he can bring his lap cat.