Who Owns the Media: X

X / SpaceX 🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Propaganda
Category: Online Platform 
Market Cap: Privately held

In 2024, X owner Elon Musk contributed nearly $300 million to help Trump win the White House. This, in combination with Musk’s transformation of Twitter into a reactionary megaphone for the MAGA movement, had — until very recently — made Musk a Trump favorite. (Musk’s bromance with Trump imploded in spectacular fashion in June, but now appears to be on the mend after Musk apologized via his platform.) The Trump administration had made Musk a “special government employee,” giving the billionaire vast oversight of federal-agency spending, including spending on programs that involve Musk’s private holdings. 

Musk’s satellite-internet service Starlink is seeking to seize a huge slice of the federal government’s $42 billion rural-broadband “affordability” program. (Never mind that Starlink’s consumer setup costs far exceed those of competing land-based options). He’s received a boost via Trump’s State Department, which is pitching Starlink overseas, as well as via Trump’s efforts to push Starlink contracts on countries engaging the president in tariff negotiations and other trade deals. Musk’s space-exploration company SpaceX is in line to secure billions more in lucrative contracts as NASA’s new head may shift the agency’s focus to putting a human on Mars. His Boring Company is in talks to receive a multi-billion-dollar contract to dig tunnels for Amtrak.

Trump FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had gone out of his way to pave a path to billions’ worth of access to the publicly owned radio spectrum needed to expand Starlink’s services. In February 2025, the State Department was caught trying to doctor its budget to allow for $400 million in purchases of armored Tesla Cybertrucks. The plan was rolled back only after an investigation revealed that the State Department had approved only $483,000 to purchase electric vehicles. It’s not just federal purchases that benefit Musk. Changes to regulatory oversight, such as the decision to gut the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration team that assesses the risks of self-driving cars, will also benefit Musk’s bottom line. “Handing [Musk] unchecked influence has allowed him to turn the federal government into an extension of his business empire,” wrote media critic Oliver Darcy.

DEI Doublespeak:

Musk has stated on X that “DEI is another word for racism.” He claims that DEI programs are a form of discrimination and must end.

What It Owns:

Elon Musk’s private company xAI Corp. controls X (formerly known as Twitter) and artificial-intelligence applications Aurora, Grok and PromptIDE. Musk also controls SpaceX, parent company of Starlink, the largest Low-Earth Orbit satellite-based broadband service provider in the world. Starlink does not report subscriber totals, but analysts estimate they were the ISP for 1.4 million subscribers in 2024. Musk is the largest shareholder in Tesla Inc., an electric-automobile and charging firm that has subsidiary companies in numerous industrial sectors across the globe.

Money & Influence Game:

Musk contributed nearly $300 million to get Donald Trump elected in 2024. X paid lobbyists $720,000 in 2024, and its employees made $158,106 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle).