Elon Musk believes he may have a high price to pay should Donald Trump be defeated by Kamala Harris in next month’s election—up to and including federal prosecution.
Speaking with Tucker Carlson in a nearly two-hour long discussion posted to X, the owner of the social media platform and CEO of Tesla admitted he’s gone “all in” in his gamble to return the former president to the White House in November.
“If he loses, I’m f----d,” a jovial Musk told the conservative commentator and former Fox News host in a friendly interview, during which the two mostly agreed with each other. “I’ve been trashing Kamala nonstop.”
Musk admitted to landing in hot water over his remarks on social media that no one has bothered to make an attempt on Harris's life as they have with Trump.
Defending himself, Musk said it was meant merely to highlight how futile such an endeavor would be. He believes the party leadership and its donors would simply move in lockstep to support a new candidate—just as they had done with Biden in July when his poll numbers sank.
Musk expects to be targeted for prosecution
Asked what a potential Harris victory would mean for X, formerly Twitter, Musk fears his political opponents would target it—especially if the Democrats eliminate Section 230, which shields platforms like his own from legal liability.
Per Musk, this would “instantly bankrupt” an already financially strained X. (Hillary Clinton did call last month to repeal Section 230 and install guardrails for social media, saying that otherwise “we lose total control” when it comes to raising children addicted to their smartphones.)
“They will try to shut it down by any means possible,” Musk argued.
He also said he could very well find himself on the receiving end of a federal indictment, though he argued any prosecution would be pure “lawfare,” where the Democratic Party hijacks the legal system to shut down a political opponent using a case that lacks any substantive merit.
“They’ll try to prosecute the company, prosecute me,” he claimed, referring to X.
His own mother, Maye, said Musk’s casual and flippant attitude at the thought of it was “not funny” since she was worried herself.
Why he believes this may be America's last real election
During the podcast, Musk argued why a Trump defeat would effectively end America’s choice at the ballot box in the future.
He believes Democrats have been deliberately transporting undocumented immigrants to swing states, where they are swiftly granted asylum.
Once this status—legally reserved only for those facing the actual threat of persecution at home—is conferred, they are given permanent residency and can apply for citizenship five years later. In exchange, they would likely vote blue.
There is no evidence to support this claim.
“The only contest will be who wins the Democratic primary,” he said. “That’s how it is in California, that’s how it is in New York.”
A spokesperson for the Democratic Party could not be reached by Fortune to respond to Musk’s claims.
Musk plans to eliminate three-quarters of all federal agencies
Musk said Trump had offered him a leading role in the administration that would grant him broad authority to gut a federal workforce he argued was bloated.
He suggested that far too many agencies are binding entrepreneurs like himself in needless and excessive red tape created just to justify their existence.
“We need some kind of garbage collection for regulations that don’t make sense,” he argued.
Musk’s proposed “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, would not be quite as draconian as he was at Twitter, where he eliminated four out of every five jobs.
But he argued the U.S. government could easily make do with a quarter of the various regulatory bodies producing more rules every year that hurt businesses like his.
“I will probably need, if this happens, quite a significant security team,” he said, “because someone might literally go postal on me from the post office.”
