Vice President Kamala Harris claims former President Donald Trump will weaponize the government against his political opponents, but Democrats are already targeting one of Trump’s chief supporters – Elon Musk.
Musk’s enterprise has increasingly been targeted since he purchased Twitter in 2022 and began staunchly supporting Trump. Washington’s bureaucracy and thousands of regulations enable officials to target him, experts told the Daily Caller. (RELATED: Elon Musk Takes Important Scalp In War On Censorship)
“I think if Harris wins, they will launch multiple criminal investigations of Elon Musk,” former U.S. District Attorney for Utah and Executive Director of Right On Crime, Brett Tolman, told the Daily Caller. “There’s no question.”
Musk’s companies are currently tangled up in numerous battles over federal investigations and regulations. Musk’s companies Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X are all involved in investigations and regulatory battles with various agencies.
The NYT has released a diagram showing all the regulatory battles and lawfare against Elon Musk and his companies.
“His companies have been targeted in at least 20 recent investigations or reviews” pic.twitter.com/xZ86waj3bL
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 21, 2024
Tolman said other countries could target Musk and his company X, formerly Twitter.
“You have countries that have indicated they’re going to launch an investigation,” Tolman stated. “So, I think it is a pivotal moment for Elon Musk.”
X was recently reinstated after a months-long feud with the Brazilian government over its content moderation policies. But European authorities have indicated they could retaliate against Musk for being too supportive of free speech. (RELATED: Major Dem Figures, Liberal Orgs Silent About Brazil Banning Elon Musk’s X)
Former Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and author of “The Power And The Money,” Tevi Troy, told the Caller there are risks to Musk supporting Trump – even if he wins. Powerful CEOs have openly allied with presidents in the past, he said, but it can be fraught. (Stream Daily Caller’s documentary ‘Rigged’ HERE)
He pointed to the founder of Time Magazine, Henry Luce.
“Luce put his thumb on the scale in the way few CEOs have done history,” Troy said. “He was very anti-Franklin Roosevelt and tried to defeat him in multiple elections, unsuccessfully.”
In photo at right, Henry R. Luce (left), magazine editor-in-chief, spoke with reporters after discussing Far East problems with President Elect Dwight Eisenhower. (Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images)
Luce also backed Dwight Eisenhower for president in 1952 and directed his magazine to write favorably of the future president. There are parallels between Luce and Musk’s support for presidential candidates, Troy told the Caller. He emphasized that Time’s reputation suffered because it was viewed as biased, and that such action opens it up to unequal enforcement of the law.
“They can pick on an individual company or individual CEO and say, we’re going to enforce every regulation against this guy, right?” Troy said. “So if Harris wins, that’s a potential danger.”
It is not unique for federal agencies to target Musk’s businesses during the Biden-Harris administration.
“There are countless examples of the DOJ acting with their hands on the scale,” Tolman told the Caller.
Last year, the Department of Justice sued SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against refugees and asylees in the hiring process, according to a DOJ press release. (RELATED: Biden Admin Relies On Elon Musk’s Starlink To Restore Internet After Previously Rejecting Its Bid For Award)
“You saw a drastic change that started to occur with Obama and now Biden,” Tolman told the Caller. “It’s unrecognizable, the department right now.”
The DOJ also set its sights on the construction of Musk’s Texas home and launched an investigation last September, according to TechCrunch.
“I’ve never seen the DOJ act and behave this way before,” Tolman emphasized.
The DOJ is not the only agency targeting Elon Musk – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegedly tried to influence an independent assessor to “punish” Musk’s platform, according to the House Judiciary Committee.
Since Musk acquired Twitter, the FTC has sent 16 demand letters to X Corp, according to legal documents from 2023. That was an escalation from the 28 demand letters issued in the over ten years prior to Musk taking over.
🚨 WOW 🚨
Joe Biden’s FTC wanted Ernst & Young to punish @elonmusk’s Twitter.
If they didn’t, Ernst & Young feared they would be retaliated against by the government. pic.twitter.com/alpxxOcL8U
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 13, 2023
Elon Musk awarded Kristine Fishell with a $1 million check during the town hall at the Roxain Theater on October 20, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)
Musk was recently blasted by Democrats for handing out $1 million checks to signees of his pro-Constitution petition every day before Nov. 5. The petition was launched by his “America PAC” to support the First and Second Amendments.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called the initiative “deeply concerning.”
“It’s something that law enforcement could take a look at,” he added.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is threatening Elon Musk over giving $1M every day to registered swing state voters who sign the @America PAC petition in support of The Constitution.
“That is deeply concerning.. It’s something that law enforcement could take a look at.” pic.twitter.com/LMrAz7xEka
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) October 20, 2024
Musk stated online that signees of his petition do not need to be aligned with a particular political party. He added they do not even have to vote to qualify.
Yesterday, reports from CNN and the New York Times said the DOJ sent a letter to Musk’s America PAC, warning that the $1 million check giveaway could violate federal law. The letter was reportedly sent from the DOJ’s public integrity section, an entity involved in matters pertaining to election law, according to CNN. (RELATED: Legal Group Sues State Department, Seeks Records On Biden-Harris Admin’s Alleged Censorship)
“The scales of justice are supposed to be, you know, even, balanced,” Tolman told the Caller. “[The] DOJ is supposed to be blindfolded and just administer the law regardless of who it is.”
Another risk to Musk could be brewing in the form of “Russian interference” allegations. Former and current officials in the U.S., Europe and Russia claim that since late 2022 Musk has had “regular contact” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Thursday. The article notes that Musk’s companies have government contracts, and the billionaire has a security clearance.
Allegations of ties to Russia have been weaponized in the past against the Democrats’ political opponents, most notably against Trump. “Russian collusion” later proved to be false when special counsel Robert Mueller stated he did not find cooperation between the Russian government and Trump’s campaign.
Sources told the Caller there are too many regulations on the books – and they could be weaponized against Musk.
“[There are] agencies in agencies, committees and lawmaking bodies, or rule making bodies that are within those agencies,” Tolman told the Caller. “So it’s turned into a massive web – there needs to be incredible changes.”
He added that Trump implemented a rule which mandated agencies must slash two regulations before passing a new one, and that there have been efforts by some officials to cut back on unnecessary government regulations, but it will take a president who is outside of the system to get something done. (RELATED: Supreme Court’s Move To Gut Administrative State Tees Up Trouble For Biden’s Green Power Plant Rules)
“It’s going to take someone that is actually willing to do that,” Tolman said. “The power of the bureaucrats – it’s real and substantial.”
There are 438 federal agencies.
America is 248 years old.
That’s nearly 2 agencies created per year over the lifetime of the country.
— America (@america) October 17, 2024
Government regulations have dramatically expanded over the past 150 years, Troy told the Caller.
“When Rockefeller was building his monopoly, there was no regulatory body or regulatory rules to stop him, and now the government has rules on just about everything a company can do,” he said.
He said CEOs need to pay attention to federal regulations and understand where the company stands with the federal government. “If you’re not paying attention to that and staying on top of it, you’re not going to be a successful CEO in the current era,” Troy said.
He stated that because there are so many regulations, the government does not have the resources to enforce every single one. However, it can choose which laws to enforce and who to target, which Troy called “selective enforcement.” (RELATED: It Only Took Eight Months For Biden’s Administration To Churn Out $1.2 Trillion In New Regs)
That selective enforcement could conceivably serve as a blueprint to target other powerful Trump supporters should he lose the election. Musk isn’t the only Silicon Valley mogul to shift toward support for Trump in recent years; others, like Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire, San Francisco billionaire David Sacks, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen are among the numerous millionaires and billionaires who have backed Trump.
They, too, could face additional regulatory hurdles not unlike Musk.
Troy said Democratic rhetoric demonizing figures like Musk serves as a greenlight to target them.
“The rhetoric criticizing Musk from senior leaders in the Democratic Party made very evident to bureaucratic enforcement types that going after Musk would be a costless and potentially praiseworthy activity,” he said.