By Benjamin J. Hulac, NJ Spotlight News Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON — In 2024, Elon Musk, a multibillionaire advising President Donald Trump and hollowing out federal agencies of staff and funding, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Republicans and trounce Democrats.
One of those Republicans is Rep. Tom Kean (R-7th), who won a second House term in November, and is now part of the slim GOP majority where every vote is needed to pass substantial legislation.
A super PAC — a political organization allowed under U.S. law to spend unlimited sums — Musk founded last year spent more than $1 million to elect Kean, whose district was the lone New Jersey House seat, out of 12, expected to generate a close election.
Kean ultimately defeated Sue Altman, the Democratic candidate, by a fairly comfortable margin, 51.8% to 46.4%, a difference of about 23,000 votes.
Since Trump became president, Musk seized a dominant perch within the administration and directed sweeping federal job layoffs and closure of federal agencies and departments, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
‘Ponzi scheme’ and ‘parasites’
Musk, who has taken a scorched-earth approach to cutting federal programs, last week attended and spoke at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting of this administration even though he is not a member of the Cabinet — agency and department leaders the Senate has confirmed, unlike Musk.
In an online post last month, Musk called people enrolled in federal programs part of a “Parasite Class.”
Then on Friday, Musk, in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan raised eyebrows when he said Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
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