In 2024, roughly 20% of Elon Musk’s social media posts were political. According to an analysis by The Washington PostThis comes as the tech billionaire has become increasingly involved in right-wing politics, a significant increase from previous years.
A Washington Post analysis found that 17% of Musk’s posts on his platform “X” in 2024 were about politics, up from just 2% in 2021. The shift comes as Musk has increasingly moved toward right-wing politics, first endorsing Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential primary campaign and then last month endorsing former President Trump.
Musk previously pledged to donate $45 million a month to help Trump’s reelection, but has since scaled back that pledge, and last week announced he would invite Trump on TVX for a formal interview with the former president.
Much of Musk’s political speech has focused on “wokeness” and “cancel culture,” conservative attacks on online conversation and discontent with society. X announced last week that it would sue a coalition of advertisers who boycotted the site because of Musk’s views.
Advertising on X has plummeted since Musk bought the company and renamed it from Twitter in 2022. The billionaire has blamed “woke” politics, but industry experts say Musk’s own views are what make X less brand-friendly.
The rise in political posts has also led to a lessened social media presence for Musk’s businesses. Though he posts frequently about Tesla and SpaceX, among other projects, he has spent less time talking about the brands in recent years.
A Washington Post analysis found that posts about Musk’s companies, including X itself, have fallen by about a third since 2021 to 21% of all posts.
Musk is X’s most followed user, with more than 193 million followers. X uses an algorithm to serve his posts to users, which has sparked controversy and drawn complaints from people trying to avoid the site’s owners’ posts.
