Business
Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk
This is what Elon Musk’s personal feed on X looks like.
He follows more than 1,000 people: right-wing influencers, conspiracy theorists, anti-transgender activists and dozens of his own superfans.
His feed represents a flattering alternate reality filled with boundless praise — for him, for Tesla, for X, for his politics.
And it mirrors his own deepening allegiances to the far-right.
In Mr. Musk’s own telling, his political views were shaped by X.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Mr. Musk said that videos circulating on X years ago depicting crowds of migrants sparked his fascination with right-wing politics and stronger border protections.
“I’ve seen videos of people streaming across the border on Twitter, now X,” he said, citing politicized and sometimes misleading videos that have spread online about migrants. “And I was like, is this real?”
It was a stark example of the power X has to politicize its own users — including the world’s richest man — using hyperpartisan opinions and far-right media.
To better understand how the information that Mr. Musk consumes on X could shape his worldview, The New York Times recreated a version of Mr. Musk’s personal feed by opening a new account on X and following the same 1,109 users that he follows. We then analyzed more than 175,000 posts from the accounts that he follows, using a service that collects data from X.
Though there is no guarantee that Mr. Musk saw all of the posts captured by The New York Times, the accounts that he follows — including world leaders and business tycoons alongside conspiracy theorists and far-right influencers — reveal the voices that Mr. Musk appears to value. (This “Following” feed is different from the main “For You” feed, which includes posts from those he follows alongside others selected by X’s algorithm.)
The resulting feed, shown in this article as a selection of posts curated from the much larger set, revealed ample praise for Mr. Musk and his various priorities, mixed with a torrent of right-wing outrage over progressive politics. It highlights the ways that social networks can create information bubbles. X declined to comment.
Step, once again, into a version of Mr. Musk’s personal X feed below.
Among the most popular topics on Mr. Musk’s feed on X? Elon Musk himself.
He follows dozens of superfans who post near-constant praise for him and his companies.
Many other users devote time to praising the executive, too — between posts about politics, memes or culture wars.
Those voices are mostly right-wing: Among tens of thousands of posts during a typical week, nearly half of them came from right-wing media figures, conservative influencers, Republican politicians or government leaders.
Those accounts included Chaya Raichik, whose X account, Libs of TikTok, has more than four million followers. Ms. Raichik’s appearances on Mr. Musk’s feed match her growing prominence offline: Her influence has exploded during the second Trump administration, and she has appeared at the White House multiple times this year, cementing her status as a top Trump advocate.
The accounts that Mr. Musk follows are also the ones he interacts with most on X, according to The Times’s analysis, giving them a valuable boost on the platform since Mr. Musk is the site’s most popular user, with more than 200 million followers.
That seems to give his followers the power to seize Mr. Musk’s attention and could even redirect his policy goals. It is something they have noticed, with some users boasting they can catch Mr. Musk’s attention with a well-timed post or question.
“Pretty amazing when the owner of a platform personally tells you he is fixing your problem in real time,” Mario Nawfal, an influencer with more than two million followers, posted after Mr. Musk said he would fix an issue on X.
Mr. Musk follows more than 1,100 users on X, including hundreds of right-wing personalities.
Who does Mr. Musk follow?
Some of the ideas that circulated on Mr. Musk’s feed later emerged on the national stage.
President Trump had claimed at an address to Congress that federal funds were used for “making mice transgender” — a misleading description of various studies that tested the effect of hormone therapy on H.I.V. infections and other other side effects of the medication. The idea had gathered steam on X two months earlier, when a conservative-led animal advocacy group posted about it. The group’s account is followed by Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, and by Mr. Musk. Mr. Musk had personally shared one of the posts.
Later, as Tesla vehicles and dealerships were vandalized or attacked in a violent reaction to Mr. Musk, his feed was filled with calls to charge the attackers with “domestic terrorism,” giving the perpetrators 20-year prison sentences.
Mr. Musk agreed, calling attacks on Tesla’s vehicles “extreme domestic terrorism!!” Days later, Mr. Trump repeated the idea, saying that he would enjoy seeing “the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences.”
The content on Mr. Musk’s feed is a mirror of his own interests: As Mr. Musk’s role in the government’s cost-cuttings grew, so did praise for those plans on X.
The accounts he follows boast frequently about his supposed cuts, claiming billions in cost-savings that have often proven false or misleading under additional scrutiny. Polling has shown that cutting government spending is popular, but that Mr. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are not. If Mr. Musk seemed oblivious to the criticism, his feed offers some reasons why: The users he follows praised his work and claimed Americans loved him for it.
After a right-wing news aggregator claimed, incorrectly, that DOGE had blocked a $52 million payment for the World Economic Forum, Mr. Musk replied: “True. You’re welcome.” In reality, ending the program had saved $7.8 million.
Those inaccuracies have not stopped Mr. Musk from recommending the DOGE account to others — he frequently promotes the accounts he follows to his own 219 million followers.
“Just follow @DOGE for details,” Mr. Musk wrote in February. “There is a firehouse of information.”
With the flow of energy through the Middle East still mostly blocked and oil prices rising, policymakers in Europe are confronting the immediate impact of higher costs and trying to decipher the potential economic damage of a prolonged conflict.
On Thursday, officials at the European Central Bank and Bank of England are expected to hold interest rates steady, but investors are betting that each central bank will raise rates at least twice later this year. Economists and lawmakers will be watching closely for signs about how the central banks will respond to jumps in inflation.
The effective closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for fuel and other commodities off Iran’s southern coast, has sharply increased energy prices. Brent crude, the international benchmark, has pushed well above $100 a barrel, while European natural gas prices are nearly 40 percent higher since the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.
The war had an almost immediate impact on European inflation, increasing gasoline prices at the pump, airfares and other fuel-intensive activities. In Britain, the annual inflation rate climbed to 3.3 percent in March and is expected to stay around 3 percent through the second quarter, a percentage point above the central bank’s target. For the 21 countries that use the euro, inflation averaged 2.6 percent in March, up from 1.9 percent a month earlier.
But for the central banks, the question is whether higher prices will ripple through the economy and eventually push up wages, potentially setting off a spiral of escalating prices that would warrant aggressive rate increases like those in 2022. For now, analysts say there isn’t enough information on how the war, seemingly in a holding pattern, will affect the economy. While President Trump has extended a cease-fire in the region, traffic through the strait remains sparse.
At the same time, the concern about inflation is being weighed against the possibility that the war damages economic growth. In that scenario, policymakers wouldn’t want to tighten financial conditions. Consumer sentiment in Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, dropped to its lowest level in three years, data this week showed. This month, the International Monetary Fund said the bloc’s economy would grow 1.1 percent this year, but that assumed a relatively quick resolution to the war and the recovery of global energy markets.
“The E.C.B. will stay in ‘wait and see’ mode, at least for now,” analysts at HSBC wrote in a note. But “the risk of prolonged energy supply disruption, coupled with risks of second-round effects on inflation,” increase the probability of the central bank’s raising interest rates later.
It’s a dilemma facing central banks farther afield as well. This week, the Bank of Japan voted to hold interest rates steady, but it was a split decision with several officials preferring an increase in rates. The central bank raised its inflation forecast while warning that economic growth is likely to slow this year.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve also held interest rates steady. It acknowledged the war’s effect on the economy, saying inflation had ticked up because of the “recent increase in global energy prices.”
Paramount Skydance has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to exceed foreign ownership rules for U.S. media companies to pave the way for its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
David Ellison’s media company is expecting to receive $24 billion from three Middle Eastern royal families, who would become part owners of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount on Monday asked the FCC for authorization to include the royal families and other foreign investors to help finance the company’s proposed $81-billion transaction.
U.S. law restricts foreign investors from owning more than 25% of a company that holds an FCC broadcast license — unless the commission determines that such an ownership structure would “serve the public interest.”
The FCC disclosed that Paramount had asked for such a “public interest” ruling to allow the merged entity to exceed the 25% foreign ownership cap.
The FCC, which did not indicate whether it will go along with Paramount’s request, initiated a review.
Paramount, in a statement, described the move as a “customary petition,” one that was required because of “the recent equity syndication.”
The Larry Ellison family will retain control of the company through its voting interests, the company said.
“When the transaction and equity syndication close, the Ellison family and RedBird [Capital Partners] will collectively hold the largest equity stake in the combined company and continue to be the sole owners of Class A Common Stock, representing 100% of the voting shares,” Paramount said.
The Ellisons must come up with $47.2 billion in equity and more than $60 billion in debt financing to pull off the deal, which is valued at $111 billion, including Warner Bros. Discovery’s existing debt.
The $24 billion expected from the sovereign wealth funds — representing the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar — would together represent about 49% of the equity in the new company. As part of the investor group, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has agreed to contribute $10 billion, according to regulatory filings.
The FCC is involved because of Paramount’s ownership of CBS and 28 television station licenses granted by the FCC. That gives FCC Chairman Brendan Carr influence over the ownership structure of the combined company.
Paramount, as it is currently constituted, has foreign investors — although not enough to approach the ownership cap. Some of those investors are expected to roll over to the larger Paramount-Warner Bros. when that merger is complete.
Several Democrats in Congress, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have expressed alarm about the prospect of allowing foreign entities to hold such an enormous stake in a major U.S. media company, particularly one with two prominent news outlets: CBS News and CNN. The two senators previously cited national national security concerns.
Paramount has long maintained the foreign ownership issue was largely resolved because the Middle Eastern families would not have voting representatives on the company’s board.
However, the FCC on Monday noted that, under its rules to calculate foreign ownership levels, the agency considers “a voting interest equal to [an entity’s] equity interest for purposes of seeking specific approval.”
The FCC has allowed other media companies to have significant foreign investment. Years ago, the FCC agreed to allow Mexico City-based Grupo Televisa to own much of Univision, the U.S.-based Spanish-language company. More recently, struggling radio giant iHeartMedia Inc. gained FCC approval for foreign owners to buy up to 100% of the company’s stock.
To get the Warner Bros. Discovery deal over the finish line, billionaire Larry Ellison agreed to guarantee the entire $47.2 billion in equity needed. Warner Bros. Discovery board members had demanded that Ellison — one of the world’s richest men — backstop the deal’s financial structure due to initial concerns about it.
Despite the commitment, the Ellisons want the flexibility to include the Middle Eastern royal families and additional foreign investors.
Paramount wants “greater access to capital, including from foreign sources,” the FCC said in its notice.
The proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. would carry $79 billion in debt, making it one of the largest leveraged buyouts ever.
The Justice Department is separately reviewing whether the merger violates U.S. antitrust laws. State attorneys general, including California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, also are scrutinizing the transaction.
More than 4,000 filmmakers, actors and industry workers, including Ben Stiller, Jane Fonda, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, have signed an open letter calling for regulators to block the deal, saying it “would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four.”
The Ellison family, which holds close ties to President Trump, has expressed confidence that the deal will be approved. Paramount also must garner the consent of regulators in markets where it conducts business, including Europe.
Paramount has said it expects to gather all of the regulatory approvals by this summer.
Oil prices continued to climb on Wednesday as the disruption to Persian Gulf energy supplies persisted. The effects are being felt far beyond the region, with the average price of U.S. gasoline setting a record high since the start of the war in Iran.
The rise in energy costs is a concern for investors, but stock markets have been buoyed by solid corporate earnings, keeping indexes elevated. Traders are also looking to officials at the Federal Reserve, who announce their latest decision on interest rates on Wednesday, for guidance on the outlook for inflation, economic growth and interest rates.
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