Elon Musk might have just lost his lustre in the Oval Office. A few days ago, he said Western civilisation hinged on whether the Republican-backed candidate won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The election results are now in, and the West has fallen.
The Democratic-endorsed candidate Susan Crawford won despite Musk pumping $25m into her opponent’s campaign, handing out $1m cheques to voters and even paying voters $50 to take photos outside polling stations. In the run up to the vote, Musk became the face of the contest. Musk’s money helped put Trump into power in November and the president holds him responsible for that victory. Might Trump now hold Musk responsible for this loss?
This might have seemed like an obscure state judicial race in the first place, but Musk got involved because the stakes were so high: the Wisconsin Supreme Court could order congressional districts to be rejigged, which could help the Democrats win back the House of Representatives at the mid-term elections next year. Even if Trump doesn’t sour on Musk, expect this result to energise Musk’s dissenters over on the Hill.
Congressional Republicans anxiously eyeing the mid-terms were already eager for Trump to end Musk’s cack-handed attacks on federal workers via his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) cuts. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who is still smarting from anger within his party over his decision to pass Trump’s budget, has resisted supporting the Resistance against Trump, at least until Congressional Republicans turn on the president. Wisconsin’s results could expedite that strategy and pry open the small cracks in the Maga movement – for failure breeds blame.
[See more: Trump’s third term is coming]
Even the good news for the Republicans from the state elections was bittersweet. In Florida, voters elected Republicans to replace the retired congressman Matt Gaetz and the now-national security advisor Mike Waltz, and therefore Trump retained his majority in the House. However, support for the party in these Floridian strongholds has clearly dropped since November. The Republican lead in November of over 30 percentage points was reduced to around 15 points in both districts with some votes still to count. And that’s before the likely rise in prices from Trump’s trade wars. This is the first concrete evidence that not all voters are happy about the president’s return to Washington.
And in private, some Republicans are worried. Those leaked Signal messages demonstrated that JD Vance was concerned about the worsening economic outlook. The White House has also pulled Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, opting to keep her in her current role and protect its House majority. That is not the action of an administration confident it can win elections.
The Democrats were already in a good mood after Corey Booker’s 25-hour anti-Trump speech in the Senate, done in protest of the White House’s policies and which ended at 8pm on 1 April. Booker broke the previous record for the longest Senate speech which was held by the pro-segregationist Strom Thurmond in 1957. The event was exactly what the party faithful needed to see: a bit of defiance – or at least a pulse – in the face of executive diktat. One speech does not a comeback make. But there’s now a dent in the administration’s rapacious momentum and despondent Democrats can see that Trump’s electoral power is fallible.
[See also: The Democrats’ toothless resistance]
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