The 'shadow president' just issued a chilling threat to Congress

US President Donald Trump and SpacexAI Founder and CEO Elon Musk stand at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, D.C., US, September 29, 2026.

Suddenly, Elon Musk, his money and his jagged opinions about how the rest of us should live have been thrust upon the rest of us.

From apparent interference in how we should conduct our foreign affairs to insistence through inordinate election spending on how we should choose our leaders, Musk is making clear that his bulging wallet as the country’s or maybe the world’s wealthiest man imbues him with special responsibilities to dictate values.

It is once again as if Musk believes he has asked to be the nation’s leader, conscience, seer, chief economic and technical adviser and opinionated nag. This is the same Musk who early in the Trump administration saw himself as co-president of a sort with Donald Trump, the same Musk who unilaterally could close foreign aid programs and fire hundreds of federal employees, and who could use his social media X to fan fires of public hatred in whatever personal directions suited him.

Then he receded to his various businesses, in which Musk is indeed very good, and that seemed a more comfortable place from which to lobby for regulation-free artificial/superintelligence technologies, space exploration and rebuilding his Tesla car business as ally Trump has been systematically smashing the electric vehicle industry.

Now, Musk’s name has resurfaced as a prime target for inquiry should the elections result in a change of majority in at least one house of Congress, and Musk has taken no time at all to issue threats against those who would question him. “Live by the sword, die by the sword”and added,“Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets,” Musk posted.

The Ukraine Starshield Decision

Two weeks ago, Musk’s Starshield military communication under contract to the Pentagon slows or even halted for Ukrainian troops in the field whose drone immediately lost the ability to hit targets inside Russia, including oil refineries and facilities that drive Russian missile attacks against civilian targets in Ukraine.

Just who had given the orders for a slowdown to decapitate the system was unclear. Though the order reportedly had come from within the White House, Trump said it wasn’t him, and the Pentagon said nothing. Musk said only a presidential order would get him to be involved, though there indeed were reported calls between Trump and Musk.

It had seemed awfully coincidental, for example, that the slowdown had followed so closely on Trump calls for a diesel deal with Russia that trashed his own sanctions program against Russian oil and that underscored other efforts to re-welcome Russia back from pariah status to new U.S. business partner. It showed Trump for any lack of morality or defense of either Ukrainian state sovereignty or democracy to align with a now outwardly preferred Russia.

On Saturday, Musk posted anew that the “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.” The slowdown affected Ukrainian military drones, airplanes and helicopters traveling faster than 100 mph.

The Wall Street Journal reported through sources that it was Musk who had made the decision about slowing Starlink, and the White House that had ordered it restored – although its current operational status remains questionable.

“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk said in his post.

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress naturally would like to know who’s making national security decisions for this nation and want to compel Musk’s testimony – a step easier if there is a Democratic majority in the House or Senate.

Unanswered here are questions about why Musk thinks it is his job to tell other countries who contract for his communication services what they can and cannot do with the technology. Unanswered is who is running this country’s foreign affairs.

Election Prospects

Meanwhile, Musk has dumped upwards of $350 million into Republican candidate campaigns, with half going towards election of embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as that state’s next senator. Musk clearly sees efficacy in maintaining Republican control of Congress, whose policies have underwritten many of his business ventures.

More importantly, Republican control has kept away questions about what Musk did as head of Trump’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) effort last year in seeking a reported two trillion dollars’ worth of government cuts. The effort came nowhere close, but along the way, Musk and a minion of young inexperienced computer nerds were able to close whole agencies, gain access to private personal taxpayer information in apparent violation of law, fire thousands of federal workers and generally lob chaos into the idea of government.

Musk managed with Trump’s help to keep much of the activities, however inaccurate the financial totals involved, secret and off-limits for public questioning.

So, the election looms as a gateway for surging Democrats to get Musk before them in hearings that will explore exactly how the entire U.S. AID foreign aid program was eliminated and its ill effects, or why Musk needed to obtain your and my personal information from tax or other records to use towards slashing government services.

At the same time, of course, Musk’s own businesses with NASA in space exploration, with the Pentagon for information and communications services or other agencies has boomed. Musk has been a chief beneficiary of the Trump presidency and its business-forward outlook.

In this last quarter, most of Musk’s political donations when to the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) Pac, election filings show. In turn, that group supported Paxton, who is at risk of losing to Democrat James Talarico in a race for a seat his party has held for decades. Texas is Musk’s newly adopted home and has offered Musk fewer government regulations, no state personal income tax and no corporate income tax.

For many voters, technology and the massive data centers needed to support development find Musk on the wrong side.

In any case, rather than worrying about rockets and Tesla recharging stations, Musk has made a return to an unwelcome role in our public lives.

Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.

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