Elon Musk has overtaken President Donald Trump as the hero of America’s far-right movement.
A WIRED review of message boards, encrypted channels, social media platforms, online search trends, and public statements from influencers and lawmakers suggests that Musk and the actions of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) organization have come to dominate discussions among far-right and extremist communities. Talk of Trump, as well as his policies and speeches have been, for the first time, relegated to an afterthought.
On The Donald, a rabidly pro-Trump message board and the home for the most extreme of the president’s supporters, the home page has been dominated by news stories and discussions about Musk and DOGE’s takeover of a number of government agencies. Trump is barely mentioned.
“Elon helped save the world,” one user wrote under a link to a news story about a Slovenian member of the European Parliament nominating Musk for the Nobel Peace Prize. “I agree with you that he has been the GOAT for Trump,” another user wrote.
In the space of a couple of weeks, Elon Musk has taken control of multiple government agencies, as a cadre of young and inexperienced engineers with ties to Musk have been given access to some of the most highly sensitive federal systems through DOGE. While Democratic leadership has railed in recent days that Musk was not elected and does not have a mandate to conduct this type of sweeping change within government, Musk’s fans have dismissed such criticism as trivial.
“The American people quite literally voted for Elon Musk and DOGE when they elected Donald Trump with a historic mandate,” right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk posted on X on Wednesday. “Buckle up, Democrats.”
Some Musk supporters are even contemplating the idea that Musk, who is constitutionally barred from being US president, could win the election in 2028.
“I didn’t vote for Elon,” one user on The Donald wrote this week. “But I will next time.”
On Telegram, far-right communities, who have fully embraced Musk since his Nazi-like salute during his inaugural festivities speech, have been praising the dismantling of USAID, which they believe exposes evidence of wild conspiracy theories they have been pushing for years. This includes the claim, boosted by Musk, that USAID was funding the development of bioweapons such as Covid-19, a conspiracy theory that all US intelligence agencies have concluded is false.
Some suggested that Trump supporters voted for the president just to get Musk into government: “I’m pretty sure many people voted for Trump because they knew Elon was going to be doing this,” one follower of Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec wrote in a comment on his Telegram channel.
The attention Musk is receiving in far-right circles reflects a broader interest in his activities over the course of the last week. Google Trends data shows that searches for the term “Elon Musk” have outpaced those for “Donald Trump” consistently. In recent days, searches for Musk were three times higher than those of Trump.
