My colleagues and I have written about how Elon Musk is dominating the political conversation. I wanted to hear what that sounds like in person, so I headed yesterday to Eau Claire, Wis., where Democrats have turned the billionaire into the main villain in a high-stakes State Supreme Court race.
Turns out, it sounds a little crude.
Gov. Tim Walz, Democrat of Minnesota, was in Eau Claire for a town-hall-style event intended to rev up Democrats about the race, which could determine the ideological balance of the state’s top court. Groups backed by Musk have poured millions of dollars into the race on behalf of the conservative candidate, Brad Schimel. Democrats are now framing the contest as “The People vs. Musk.”
Walz began by saying that name-calling doesn’t work. Then, he called Musk a “dipshit” and, later, an “unelected South African nepo baby” with the power to cut government programs. The crowd roared.
Musk was born in South Africa, but has been a U.S. citizen for more than two decades. The attack reflects private calculations that casting Musk as a foreign interloper in the government may help rally opposition to his work — something Democrats believe Republicans would do if the roles were reversed. As I wrote today, Walz’s comments suggest the attack is making its way into the public conversation:
Walz, his party’s nominee for vice president last year, is one of several Democrats who have referred to Mr. Musk’s immigrant background as they ramp up attacks on the billionaire’s powerful role in the Trump administration. At times, their language, casting Musk as a foreign outsider, has echoed aspects of President Trump’s own xenophobic insults of his political foes — although Mr. Trump’s remarks were typically directed toward elected officials of color, not white billionaires.
At a news conference last month, Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio said she wondered, “Which country is he loyal to? South Africa, Canada, or the United States?” Representative Nydia Velázquez of New York declared Mr. Musk should “go back to South Africa” at a recent protest. At a different protest, Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said, “We’re going to send Elon back to South Africa.”
President Trump has frequently insulted his political foes — including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris and a group of progressive women of color in the House of Representatives — by suggesting they are somehow foreign or different. Those attacks carried a layer of racism, too, since their targets were largely Black.