Elon Musk Stays Silent After Bombshell Report on Secret Putin Contact
Elon Musk has stayed unusually silent after The Wall Street Journal revealed Thursday night that the tech CEO has been speaking regularly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The newspaper reported that Musk has corresponded with Putin since 2022, discussing personal topics, business, and geopolitical tensions. Putin even made a request of Musk in one conversation: to refrain from setting up his satellite internet service, Starlink, over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Musk has been tweeting around the clock since the story broke at 9 p.m. EST Thursday, but has not mentioned the Journal article once, mostly sticking to right-wing conspiracies and promotion of Donald Trump. According to the Journal, Musk not only had conversations with Putin, but with other high-ranking Kremlin officials as well. He even faced “implicit threats against him,” one source said. The report is especially concerning given that the tech mogul has come out as a strong supporter of the former president, spending millions to help Trump return to the White House. The Journal report notes that Putin and Musk have continued contact this year as Musk has ramped up his efforts to reelect Trump.In addition to his political activism, Musk has billions of dollars in government contracts attached to his companies. SpaceX, which operates Starlink, has a $1.8 billion classified contract and launches rockets for the Pentagon and NASA. He also has a security clearance giving him access to classified information. With all of these government connections, the fact that Musk is consistently talking to one of the United States’ foremost adversaries in Putin presents a danger to national security. His control of Starlink gives him immense power over international communications, too. And Musk’s ownership of X also potentially puts the personal information of anyone who uses the social media service at risk. An anonymous source told the Journal that the Biden administration is aware of Musk and Putin’s relationship, but hasn’t raised any concerns over security breaches. However, “they don’t love it,” the source told the Journal. The Russian government has denied that Putin and Musk speak extensively, and the tech CEO did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. But it fits a pattern for Musk: He’s met several times with autocrats like Javier Milei of Argentina as well as former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Putin, however, is currently under international sanctions for invading Ukraine, and has mounted disinformation campaigns in the United States to further his interests. If Musk is friendly with Putin, it raises the question of whether his activism for Trump is what the Russian leader wants as well.
Elon Musk has stayed unusually silent after The Wall Street Journal revealed Thursday night that the tech CEO has been speaking regularly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The newspaper reported that Musk has corresponded with Putin since 2022, discussing personal topics, business, and geopolitical tensions. Putin even made a request of Musk in one conversation: to refrain from setting up his satellite internet service, Starlink, over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Musk has been tweeting around the clock since the story broke at 9 p.m. EST Thursday, but has not mentioned the Journal article once, mostly sticking to right-wing conspiracies and promotion of Donald Trump. According to the Journal, Musk not only had conversations with Putin, but with other high-ranking Kremlin officials as well. He even faced “implicit threats against him,” one source said.
The report is especially concerning given that the tech mogul has come out as a strong supporter of the former president, spending millions to help Trump return to the White House. The Journal report notes that Putin and Musk have continued contact this year as Musk has ramped up his efforts to reelect Trump.
In addition to his political activism, Musk has billions of dollars in government contracts attached to his companies. SpaceX, which operates Starlink, has a $1.8 billion classified contract and launches rockets for the Pentagon and NASA. He also has a security clearance giving him access to classified information.
With all of these government connections, the fact that Musk is consistently talking to one of the United States’ foremost adversaries in Putin presents a danger to national security. His control of Starlink gives him immense power over international communications, too. And Musk’s ownership of X also potentially puts the personal information of anyone who uses the social media service at risk. An anonymous source told the Journal that the Biden administration is aware of Musk and Putin’s relationship, but hasn’t raised any concerns over security breaches.
However, “they don’t love it,” the source told the Journal.
The Russian government has denied that Putin and Musk speak extensively, and the tech CEO did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. But it fits a pattern for Musk: He’s met several times with autocrats like Javier Milei of Argentina as well as former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Putin, however, is currently under international sanctions for invading Ukraine, and has mounted disinformation campaigns in the United States to further his interests. If Musk is friendly with Putin, it raises the question of whether his activism for Trump is what the Russian leader wants as well.
