My colleagues and I have written about how Elon Musk is dominating the political conversation. I wanted to hear what that sounds like in person, so I headed yesterday to Eau Claire, Wis., where Democrats have turned the billionaire into the main villain in a high-stakes State Supreme Court race.
Turns out, it sounds a little crude.
Gov. Tim Walz, Democrat of Minnesota, was in Eau Claire for a town-hall-style event intended to rev up Democrats about the race, which could determine the ideological balance of the state’s top court. Groups backed by Musk have poured millions of dollars into the race on behalf of the conservative candidate, Brad Schimel. Democrats are now framing the contest as “The People vs. Musk.”
Walz began by saying that name-calling doesn’t work. Then, he called Musk a “dipshit” and, later, an “unelected South African nepo baby” with the power to cut government programs. The crowd roared.
Musk was born in South Africa, but has been a U.S. citizen for more than two decades. The attack reflects private calculations that casting Musk as a foreign interloper in the government may help rally opposition to his work — something Democrats believe Republicans would do if the roles were reversed. As I wrote today, Walz’s comments suggest the attack is making its way into the public conversation:
Walz, his party’s nominee for vice president last year, is one of several Democrats who have referred to Mr. Musk’s immigrant background as they ramp up attacks on the billionaire’s powerful role in the Trump administration. At times, their language, casting Musk as a foreign outsider, has echoed aspects of President Trump’s own xenophobic insults of his political foes — although Mr. Trump’s remarks were typically directed toward elected officials of color, not white billionaires.
At a news conference last month, Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio said she wondered, “Which country is he loyal to? South Africa, Canada, or the United States?” Representative Nydia Velázquez of New York declared Mr. Musk should “go back to South Africa” at a recent protest. At a different protest, Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said, “We’re going to send Elon back to South Africa.”
President Trump has frequently insulted his political foes — including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris and a group of progressive women of color in the House of Representatives — by suggesting they are somehow foreign or different. Those attacks carried a layer of racism, too, since their targets were largely Black.
But as Democrats wrestle with how to take on Trump, the attacks on Musk’s immigrant status illustrate that some in their party have decided to at least experiment with a dip into the president’s playbook.
IN THE COURTS
How Musk’s words were used against him
Last night, a federal judge ruled that efforts by Musk and his team to shutter U.S.A.I.D. most likely violated the Constitution “in multiple ways,” my colleague Zach Montague reported.
The ruling was the first time a judge has directly moved to rein in Musk and his department. Government lawyers have argued in court that Musk is merely an adviser with no authority to fire workers. Judge Theodore Chuang disagreed — and he cited Musk’s own words and posts as evidence of his lead role in effectively dismantling U.S.A.I.D., as Zach explained.
The judge noted that Mr. Musk, during a cabinet meeting he attended at the White House last month, acknowledged that his team had accidentally slashed funding for Ebola prevention administered by U.S.A.I.D. … And he cited Mr. Musk’s own comments on social media taking credit for the aid agency’s dismantling.
The judge also quoted Mr. Musk talking about the need to “delete entire agencies” and pointed to a post Mr. Musk shared stating “DOGE can now DISMANTLE U.S.A.I.D.” after a judge lifted an order blocking the agency from carrying out mass firings.
More on government agencies
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State and federal officials who work to prevent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses are being threatened by funding and staff cuts at the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department.
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The Department of Defense removed, and then restored, an article on its website about Jackie Robinson’s military career. Several pages and other resources focused on the achievements of Black service members have disappeared from military sites since President Trump took office.
MEANWHILE on X
‘Impeach them’
Musk is using his social media platform as a personal megaphone. My colleague Kate Conger explains how he has employed it to join the call to punish federal judges who rule against the Trump administration.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement trying to tamp down Trump’s calls to impeach judges he disagrees with. On Wednesday, Musk, Trump’s loudest ally, dialed up the volume.
In several posts on X, some published around 3 a.m., Musk railed against federal judges who have blocked parts of the Trump administration’s deportation and cost-cutting agendas.
“For more than two centuries, there has never [been] such extreme abuse of the legal system by activists pretending to be judges,” Musk wrote. “Impeach them.”
Later in the day, Musk called a court ruling allowing transgender people to continue serving in the military “a judicial coup,” and added, “We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people.”
That post earned a note from X’s community-run fact-checking system, which pointed out that Musk would need 67 senators, not 60, to remove a federal judge.
BY THE NUMBERS
57 percent
That’s the share of federal workers who believe that either most or all of Trump’s executive orders affecting their agencies are illegal, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.
Most of the federal workers polled said they disapproved of Trump’s job performance, including 17 percent of the workers who said they had voted for Trump.
The post Taking a Page From Trump’s Book appeared first on New York Times.
