Elon Musk has pumped millions of dollars into a Republican Senate hopeful’s campaign after previously vowing to disrupt the GOP and Donald Trump following their major bust-up.
The world’s richest man has donated $10 million to Kentucky’s Nate Morris, a pro-Trump candidate hoping to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell, Axios reported.
The mega-sum given to the Fight for Kentucky super PAC is the largest contribution the tech billionaire has ever given to a Senate candidate and a major sign that Musk wants to return to having an influential role in Republican politics.
The reversal marks an embarrassing climbdown for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who last year vowed to support challengers to Republican incumbents in the midterms and promised to donate to the re-election campaign of Trump’s longtime nemesis, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, after his spectacular falling out with Trump.
Shortly after Musk left his role at the failed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program, Trump and Musk began exchanging verbal blows over the president’s “big, beautiful” spending bill. The back-and-forth escalated to Musk claiming that the reason the government had not released files linked to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is that Trump appears in them.
Musk also threatened to launch a third party called “the American Party” to challenge GOP candidates in the 2026 midterms, in which Republicans are predicted to suffer brutal losses across the country.
However, Axios also reported in December that Musk is no longer planning to sabotage Trump and the GOP. Instead, he reportedly wants to act as a traditional Republican megadonor, having already pumped nearly $300 million into Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Musk’s change of heart reportedly came after a dinner with Vice President JD Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and former White House aide Taylor Budowich, as the administration worked to repair relations between the president and the tech billionaire.
Musk has since told Republican operatives that he plans to donate more money to GOP causes following his $10 million check to Morris, as well as to pro–House and Senate GOP super PACs.
The volatile relationship between Musk and Trump has cooled, with Musk dining with the president and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 3.
When asked by reporters on Air Force One the following day if Musk was “back in the fold,” Trump replied: “I say about Elon, he’s 80 percent super genius and 20 percent he makes mistakes. But he’s a good guy.”
