Musk uses his X ownership and White House position to push Trump priorities, intimidate detractors

The emergence of X owner Elon Musk as the most influential figure around President Donald Trump has created an extraordinary dynamic — a White House adviser who's using one of the world’s most powerful information platforms to sell the government’s talking points while threatening its detractors. Musk's use of the social media platform he owns has become both a cudgel and a megaphone for the Republican administration. Democracy experts say that matters because as more Americans flock to social media to get their news, the arbiters of who controls the flow of information on those sites have enormous power to shape the electorate’s perspective.