Elon Musk doesn’t do small hobbies. Some billionaires buy sports teams. Some buy islands. Musk, apparently, has decided to buy the end of George Soros’s political empire.
Alex Bruno breaks down Musk’s newest crusade, and why he thinks it’s the best deal he’ll ever make.
Musk made his intentions plain in a burst of posts that lit up his platform overnight. “I’m going to stop him before he wrecks the country,” Musk wrote. “Soros has had decades to do damage. That’s enough.”
He followed that up with another line that got repeated on cable news all morning. He said he wants to ruin Soros, financially and politically, before Soros can do any more harm.
The numbers explain Musk’s confidence. Soros is one of the richest men in America. Musk is the richest man in the world, with a fortune estimated at about ten times larger. In a spending fight, that’s like bringing a fire truck to a water balloon battle.
“He could overpay by a ridiculous amount and still come out ahead,” a Silicon Valley venture capitalist told Bruno. “When you’re ten times bigger, overpaying is just called Tuesday.”
Musk’s team hasn’t laid out every detail, but supporters describe a straightforward strategy. Follow Soros-linked money into races and causes, then flood the zone on the other side.
That could mean backing challengers in prosecutor elections, funding rival advocacy groups and using his social platform to make sure voters know who’s paying for what.
“It’s not complicated,” a Musk ally said. “Soros writes a check. Elon writes a bigger one. Repeat.” Conservatives were thrilled. Many have spent years complaining about Soros’s influence and finally see someone with the money to do something about it.
Progressives were less excited, warning that a billionaire war is bad for democracy no matter who wins. Musk’s response to that criticism was a single laughing emoji. Soros’s allies brushed off the threat, saying the foundation’s work will continue no matter who’s tweeting about it.
With Musk, it’s always hard to tell where the joke ends and the plan begins. He once called a rocket launch a “fun Tuesday” and a car company a side project.
But people close to him say this one is real. They describe him as more focused on Soros than he’s been on anything since he bought Twitter. “He’s not going to Mars until this is done,” one friend joked. “Or at least he says that.”
Wall Street analysts have tried to guess how much money it would take for Musk to make a real dent. Their estimates vary, but most agree it would be a fraction of what he’s spent on rockets. One analyst described it as “couch cushion money” for Musk.
Another pointed out that Musk once lost more in a single afternoon of stock swings than Soros’s foundations spend in a typical year. “Overpaying doesn’t matter at that level,” the analyst said. “He’s playing with the house’s money, and he is the house.” Musk himself put it simply. “Best investment I’ll ever make,” he posted.
Elon Musk has made a career out of doing things people said were impossible. Taking down George Soros’s political machine might be his strangest project yet. But with ten times the money and endless energy for a fight, he believes the outcome is already decided. All that’s left is the spending.
Representatives for Soros did not respond to a request for comment.
