President Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk used his outsize influence on X to help kill a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, spreading multiple false claims in the process.
If Musk had legitimate criticism of the bill grounded in facts, then I believe it would have been perfectly reasonable to make an attempt to try to influence lawmakers. The issue here was the use of misinformation, influencing lawmakers to make decisions contrary to what a factual argument would lead them to have made.
Lawmakers should be able to think for themselves, decide for themselves without listening to what Elon has to say. If not, then that’s a whole different issue, one that we shouldn’t blame Elon for.
If Musk had legitimate criticism of the bill grounded in facts, then I believe it would have been perfectly reasonable to make an attempt to try to influence lawmakers. The issue here was the use of misinformation, influencing lawmakers to make decisions contrary to what a factual argument would lead them to have made.
Lawmakers should be able to think for themselves, decide for themselves without listening to what Elon has to say. If not, then that’s a whole different issue, one that we shouldn’t blame Elon for.