Trump and the GOP confront an Elon Musk quandary after Wisconsin election

After a costly Wisconsin loss, President Trump and Republicans have a big decision to make about Elon Musk: continue to leverage his fame on the national stage or try to politely ask him to stay backstage a bit more.

Elon Musk speaks at a town hall in Wisconsin. Picture: AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps

After a costly Wisconsin loss, President Trump and Republicans have a big decision to make about Elon Musk: continue to leverage his fame on the national stage or try to politely ask him to stay backstage a bit more.

Musk’s deep financial and personal involvement in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election proved to be a political liability for the GOP, boosting votes for Democrats more than Republicans compared with a similar election two years ago.

While the GOP may still be eager to tap in to the fortune of the world’s richest man for campaign money — he was the largest 2024 election-cycle donor, contributing close to $300 million to help Trump and other Republicans — the party may be less excited to see him play frontman the way he did in Wisconsin.

Elon Musk presenting a $1m check to at a Wisconsin pre-election rally. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

In private, some Republicans and White House officials have expressed worry that Musk could continue to cost them in elections. His attacks on Social Security are spooking GOP lawmakers, and the image of him holding a chainsaw over his head is also likely to be one Democratic ad makers will use in 2026.

“Federal employees are a whole lot more popular than Elon Musk,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who recently conducted a survey looking at feelings about federal workers and the role Musk is playing in downsizing the size and scope of the US government. “The chainsaw approach that Elon Musk is using is simply not popular and that is very clear in the data.”

There is no question Musk is popular with Trump’s MAGA base, a group also heavily supportive of the role he is playing in slashing the federal government. During Musk’s appearance in Green Bay on Sunday evening one pastor asked to say a prayer for him as the audience fell silent to listen.

But he doesn’t appear to play well in general-election-type races like the one in Wisconsin, where liberal Judge Susan Crawford beat conservative Judge Brad Schimel by 10 percentage points.

Wisconsin voters also easily approved an amendment to their state constitution to bolster a current law requiring photo identification at the polls, a victory for GOP sponsors of the proposal.

Republicans held on to two congressional seats Tuesday in Florida, albeit by smaller margins in what have been traditionally deeply red districts. But the Wisconsin race was the biggest contest on a day that was the first major electoral test of Trump’s second presidency.

Among Wisconsin’s independent voters, 58 per cent hold an unfavourable view of Musk, a number that jumps to 97 per cent among Democrats, according to a poll by Marquette Law School in Milwaukee taken in late February, even before some of Musk’s more recent polarising statements and actions. Just 41 per cent of voters overall there held a positive view of him.

In recent days, Musk has been trying to soften his image, doing a few interviews with mostly friendly questioners. At a town hall event he headlined Sunday in Wisconsin, he took questions on everything from artificial intelligence to his efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency.

Judge Susan Crawford won Tuesday’s election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

In the Wisconsin election, as well as the two special elections in Florida, Republicans also continued to confront one of the central challenges they have faced in the Trump era: his voters don’t show up as much when he isn’t on the ballot.

Musk had called the Wisconsin election the most important one being held Tuesday and said he had put himself on the line to try to shape the outcome. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m here in person,” he said.

That stood in contrast with Trump, who called into the state on a recent night but didn’t travel there ahead of the election to rally his supporters. Nobody electrifies the political base that he has built better than him and he has mostly been sequestered in Washington and at his Florida resort.

The president hasn’t held any of his signature rallies since being sworn in, focusing his efforts on running the federal government, sometimes broadcasting the signing of executive orders from the Oval Office.

Even if Trump and Republicans decide to encourage Musk to play a lower-profile role, that may not be an easy sell to a flamboyant billionaire who has developed a taste for seeking attention on the world stage.

On Monday, Trump called Musk “amazing,” but said that his role running DOGE would eventually end. “He’s got a big company to run and so at some point he’s going to be going back,” the president said. “I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.”

Wall Street Journal