Elon Musk encourages 'independent-minded voters' to elect Republicans
Embattled Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday encouraged his more than 114 million followers on the platform to vote for Republicans in Tuesday's midterm elections, claiming that "shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties."
Musk's party endorsement is his most overtly political action since taking the helm of the social media juggernaut just over a week earlier. The message comes one day after Twitter hastily pulled back on plans to launch a paid verification service, which critics feared could lead to confusion and misinformation on Election Day. Instead, the company said it would debut the new user tier after the midterms.
Musk's tenure has been marked by a sharp uptick in abusive and bigoted content on the site, prompting a number of businesses to pull advertising from the site. In a brief back and forth with conservative activist Tom Fitton on Monday, Musk indicated he would pursue legal action against companies boycotting the platform.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Between the conversation with Fitton and his call for a Republican congress, Musk also shared a meme of a mid-20th century soldier and carrier pigeons, joking that these were the pre-internet equivalent of "unread messages." As many users on Twitter quickly pointed out, the man pictured in the photograph appears to be a Nazi soldier.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling


