Elon Musk has launched rockets, bought a social network and built electric cars that talk back. Now he says he has a new project, and it doesn’t involve Mars. It involves George Soros.
Alex Bruno looked at Musk’s latest mission and the math behind it.
Musk has never hidden his dislike for Soros, the billionaire financier whose foundations have spent heavily on progressive causes for decades. Musk has compared him to a comic book villain more than once.
This time he went further. “I want to ruin him before he wrecks the country,” Musk said. “That’s the mission. Everything else can wait a little.”
He didn’t mean physically, his allies were quick to add. He means money and influence, the two things Soros has used to shape American politics for years. On paper, this isn’t a fair fight. Soros is very rich. Musk is absurdly rich. Most estimates put Musk’s fortune at roughly ten times what Soros controls.
That’s the kind of gap that changes how you think about a battle. Soros spends hundreds of millions on campaigns and causes. Musk can spend that and barely notice the dent.
“Even if he overpays, it’s a steal,” said one Musk-friendly investor. “Think about what he’s buying. He’s buying the end of an operation that’s been pushing this country around for thirty years.”
Musk hasn’t released a detailed battle plan, which surprises nobody. But people close to him say he intends to go after Soros’s influence on several fronts. Funding opposing candidates in races where Soros-backed groups are active. Backing rival organizations in local district attorney contests. Using his social platform to shine a light on where the money goes.
“It’s simple,” one adviser said. “Wherever Soros puts a dollar, Elon puts ten.”
People associated with Soros’s foundations have dismissed the threat as more Musk showmanship. They point out that their work has survived plenty of rich critics before.
Musk’s fans aren’t buying it. They say Soros has never faced someone who can outspend him ten to one and enjoys a fight this much. In Washington, reactions split along familiar lines. Conservatives cheered. Progressives warned that one billionaire trying to cancel another billionaire is exactly what’s wrong with politics.
A few lobbyists, speaking privately, mostly wanted to know one thing. “Is he hiring?” one asked.
Some financial types have tried to estimate how much Musk might actually spend. The guesses range wildly, from a few hundred million to several billion over the next decade. To most people, that’s an unimaginable amount of money.
To Musk, it’s a rounding error on a good day for his car company’s stock. “He’s spent more on a bad tweet than this will cost him,” one analyst joked. Another said the real question isn’t whether Musk can afford it, but whether he’ll stay interested long enough. Musk’s answer was short. “I’m not getting bored of saving the country,” he posted.
Musk, never one to back away from a post, doubled down online, saying the country’s future is worth more than any rocket launch. “I’ve spent a lot of money on things people said were crazy,” he wrote. “This is the least crazy thing I’ve ever done.”
Whether it works is another question. Soros’s network is deep and old. But if anyone can afford to find out, it’s the man who once bought a social media company on what looked like a whim.
Representatives for Soros did not respond to a request for comment.