Elon Musk is scaling back, but the campaign attacks invoking him may just be getting started: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Bridget Bowman explores how Democrats are using Elon Musk in campaign attacks against each other, not just Republicans. Plus, Andrea Mitchell dives into yet another Oval Office showdown between President Donald Trump and a world leader.

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— Adam Wollner

Elon Musk is scaling back, but the campaign attacks invoking him may just be getting started

Elon Musk has pulled back from his initial prominent role in the Trump administration and said he will spend “a lot less” on politics moving forward. But he’s still sure to a major figure on the campaign trail in the weeks and months ahead.

The latest example comes in New Jersey, where the gubernatorial primary is in less than three weeks, as Bridget Bowman reports. Two new attack ads launched this week note that Democrat Mikie Sherrill’s House campaign received donations from a corporate PAC for Musk’s company SpaceX.

It underscores how Democrats are looking to invoke Musk in attacks, not just against Republicans — as they notably did in last month’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race — but also against members of their own party. And it offers a potential preview of what’s to come in Democratic contests heading into the 2026 midterm elections, with Musk emerging as a political boogeyman for the left following his roles as a major 2024 GOP donor and with the Department of Government Efficiency.

Sherrill’s House campaign was one of nearly 180 Democratic congressional campaigns to receive donations from SpaceX’s corporate PAC since 2008, according to campaign finance records. The corporate PAC also donated to roughly 240 Republican congressional campaigns over that same period.

If the New Jersey race is any indication, the donations could become political liabilities for Democrats this year. And the list of recipients includes some who are in competitive Senate primaries in 2026. That includes Reps. Angie Craig of Minnesota and Haley Stevens of Michigan, as well as Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.

Craig’s campaign previously said it donated her campaign’s SpaceX contributions to charity. Krishnamoorthi’s campaign also donated the funds to charity before he launched his Senate run, according to his campaign.

Sherrill has done the same, donating the $24,000 her campaign had received from the SpaceX corporate PAC since 2019 to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey on March 20, according to a recent campaign finance report.

One of Sherrill’s rivals in the gubernatorial primary, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, also received a $2,500 donation from Musk last year. Gottheimer campaign spokesperson Peter Opitz said in a statement to NBC News that Gottheimer “gave away the contribution last year to help Democrats in New Jersey beat Republicans at the ballot box.”

Read more from Bridget →

Trump initiates another Oval Office confrontation with a foreign leader

By Andrea Mitchell

President Donald Trump’s unique method of conducting diplomacy in public — especially when seizing advantage over a less powerful foreign leader — was on full display in the Oval Office today in what is being widely described as a political ambush of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Reminiscent of the White House dressing down of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February, Trump — flanked by Vice President JD Vance, deputy chief of staff Steven Miller and South African native Elon Musk — began politely, as Ramaphosa tried flattery. He spoke of trade agreements, and brought with him South African golf legend Ernie Els and a book displaying the attractions of his country’s golf courses.

But instead of listening to Ramaphosa in private defending his government against baseless U.S. accusations it is committing genocide against minority white farmers, Trump dimmed the Oval Office lights to show videos promoting those claims.

The State Department has not designated a genocide in South Africa, as would be required by law, but a spokesperson says it is enough that the president has said one is taking place. Musk has also repeatedly posted on X that South African law permits white-owned land to be confiscated. That is correct, in some instances, but it does require judicial review. The U.S. has also cut off $400 million in foreign aid to South Africa, including funding through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that has saved millions of lives by preventing the spread of HIV.

Several Democratic senators challenged Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing about the genocide charge Tuesday. Reached today, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told NBC News no one questions that South Africa has a terrible crime problem, but that the genocide charge is a “fabrication by Trump to justify bringing 59 white South Africans to the U.S. as refugees” last week.

That move came after Trump had suspended the refugee asylum program in a Jan. 20 executive order and last week cancelled Temporary Protective Status to thousands of Afghans living in the U.S. since the Taliban takeover.

On a separate but related issue, a spokesperson for Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told NBC News that the senator is introducing a privileged resolution denouncing the administration’s recent deportation flight with eight migrants that was reportedly intended for South Sudan. A federal judge ruled the Trump administration had violated a previous court order with that deportation flight. The resolution, which would require a simple majority for passage in the GOP-led Senate, is expected to be voted on after the Memorial Day recess.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Ben Kamisar.

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