Musk coordinating with top GOP strategists in advance of 2026 midterms

Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

​​Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s top political advisor, Chris Young, scheduled a meeting with Red Oak Strategic, a Republican analytics firm known for working with establishment conservative political groups. The Microsoft Teams meeting, which was set for January 8 and listed on Young’s publicly accessible Google Calendar, was described as a “data project discussion” for America PAC, the super PAC Musk created in 2024 to disburse $239 million to back Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. Mark Stephenson, the CEO of Red Oak Strategic, was listed as a participant, along with Ben Horton, the firm’s vice president.

America PAC’s involvement with Red Oak Strategic marks a previously unreported tie between Musk and the GOP establishment at a time when he is ramping up his political spending to help Republicans win this year’s midterm elections. Red Oak Strategic has a history of working for the Heritage Foundation-aligned Sentinel Action Fund, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Congressional Leadership Fund, and the Senate Leadership Fund.

Another participant in the meeting was a member of Lex Politica, a firm run by Musk attorney Chris Gober that specializes in campaign finance and election law. “Our team has the sophisticated experience and technical expertise to navigate the Federal Election Campaign Act, as well as the varied state and local campaign finance landscapes in the 50 states,” Lex Politica’s website states. “We also have the broad experience to provide expert counsel on operational and media issues involving Internal Revenue Service and Federal Communications Commission regulations.”

Young, Red Oak Strategic, and Lex Politica did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Exactly what was discussed during the meeting is unclear, but its description as a “data project discussion” recalls Musk’s role in past elections. During the 2024 race, his super PAC prioritized collecting personal information and incentivized voters with cash lotteries that pushed the boundaries of the law. Those efforts yielded the names and contact information of registered voters that America PAC could lean on to support Trump’s presidential run.

While Musk, who is worth an estimated $780 billion, said last May that he would do “a lot less” political spending going forward, he has since flip-flopped. “America is toast if the radical left wins [the midterms],” Musk wrote in early January on X, his social media platform, while sharing a post stating that he would go “all-in” on funding Republicans in 2026.

He has since donated $10 million to support Republican Senate candidate Nate Morris, according to a New York Times report published on Tuesday.

Axios also reported in December that Musk had “recently cut big checks” to help Republicans win midterm congressional races. The donations represented a significant step toward Musk’s reconciliation with Trump. The two men had split in June amid a short-lived but bitter feud that ignited after the president withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman, a longtime Musk associate, to lead NASA.

The Trump administration’s gift to xAI

Six months later, Musk is back in Trump’s fold and enjoying the perks. Isaacman is now leading NASA, and Musk has resumed making public appearances with Trump and members of his administration. Last week, Musk introduced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in front of his employees at SpaceX’s headquarters in Starbase, Texas, where the two men expressed their hope to “make Star Trek real.”

“I want to thank you, Elon, and your incredible team for leaning forward with us on this as well,” Hegseth said during his speech at the facility, during which he announced that Grok, the artificial intelligence platform created by Musk’s xAI startup, would be given access to “every unclassified and classified network” at the Pentagon by next month.

While Hegseth framed the change as a key driver in the Pentagon’s “AI acceleration strategy,” it was also hugely beneficial to Musk, particularly given the timing. Days before the announcement, xAI sparked one of the most appalling scandals in the history of the AI industry after Grok began allowing users to generate sexualized images of real people, including children. The platform’s proliferation of child sexual abuse material has led to xAI facing investigations and bans in numerous countries, culminating in an even larger outcry than when Grok repeatedly generated praise for Hitler and called for another Holocaust.

But with xAI at its lowest point from a public relations perspective, the Trump administration swooped in to give Musk’s flagship AI product a sure sign of stability and government backing: classified military work. For its part, xAI has long sought classified work since it was first awarded a Defense Department contract worth up to $200 million last year. The company has looked to fill numerous roles with applicants who hold active Top Secret clearances since at least September.

Grok is receiving access to the Pentagon’s classified materials despite its litany of security concerns, including xAI’s Saudi, Qatari, and Abu Dhabi funding, lax AI safety and cybersecurity policies, and use of Chinese-made transformers to power its supercomputer facility.

Demise of Musk’s third-party promise

As for Musk’s reconciliation with Trump, it follows the centibillionaire’s November meeting with J.D. Vance. The vice president had previously urged Musk not to go through with his promise to launch a third-party political project, according to the Washington Post. Over the summer, Musk said he would use his so-called America Party to fund conservative candidates to run against Republicans who had voted to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

But his talks with Vance appear to have convinced Musk to abandon the idea. The Post also reported that it was Vance who successfully worked to reinstate Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA, a move Musk has praised. (Trump renominated Isaacman, a billionaire SpaceX customer and client, in November, and the Senate confirmed him the following month.)

And early this month, shortly after Musk stated his plan to fund the GOP’s midterm efforts, he touted “a lovely dinner” he had with the president and Melania Trump. “2026 is going to be amazing!” Musk added.

Part of Musk’s stated reasoning for supporting Republicans in the midterms is his theory that Democratic lawmakers “will open the floodgates to illegal immigration” and then it “won’t be America anymore.” Since that post, which Musk made on New Year’s Day, he has taken to more aggressively infusing his political commentary with white nationalism. In a post last week, he endorsed a call for “White solidarity” and a warning that “If White men become a minority, we will be slaughtered.”