Elon Musk is keeping a watchful eye over the donations pouring in to support presumed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
Her campaign has raked in more than $200 million in the week since President Joe Biden endorsed her as his successor in the race for the Oval Office. Among those mobilizing voters in her favor is the group White Dudes For Harris.
The organizers orchestrated a massive virtual meeting on July 29, saying that they were “honest, open, and ready to support our first Black woman president” on a flyer promoting the event.
Mike Nellis, a founder of White Dudes For Harris, shared a lengthy tweet explaining the significance of the call to “lift” white men from the MAGA whirlpool that has been a divisive and cult-like movement pushing Republican agendas such as Project 2025 and the reelection of former President Donald Trump.
Nellis wrote that white men supporting Democratic candidates such as Harris “would make it dramatically easier to advance the policies we care about and shift the tone to something for more productive and healthy.” The father of a young son said the grassroots group was inspired by the quick mobilization of Black men and women who have rallied behind the vice president’s ascent to the nation’s highest office.
“We can stop our country from heading down a dangerous path once again. We can organize ourselves in a positive way that heals and creates progressive change,” he posted on X. More than 190,000 people joined the call, and within hours, they raised over $4 million. Their Twitter account, which had been used to promote the meeting and calls for campaign donations, was suspended soon after.
“We scared @elonmusk and @DonaldJTrumpJr so much tonight they suspended our account and won’t let us back in. These guys are running scared of the success we’ve had tonight, but we’re not going to quit,” continued Nellis.
Tech entrepreneur Musk purchased the social platform formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in a controversial acquisition in October 2022. He renamed it X the following summer.
I ask this question seriously… are we the first white dudes to ever get suspended by @elonmusk's Twitter?
— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) July 30, 2024
I think we are. https://t.co/C41QKOAeTR
Among his first initiatives was to reinstate Trump’s account after he had already been banned for spreading election misinformation and false narratives of the 2020 presidential election being rigged by Democrats when Biden was declared the winner.
The New York native’s rage and unwillingness to accept the loss have been declared by many since the root cause of the Jan. 6, 2020, insurrection in the nation’s capital, a conclusion backed by a federal indictment against the 45th president.
Outcry bashing Musk for presumably approving the app’s team to delete the White Dudes For Harris account included someone who declared, “Election Interference is a crime a felony at it, treat is as such!!!!” on Instagram.
A second social media user said, “That should be illegal but it is the reason why he bought Twitter so he could control the flow of information.”
Another critic said, “Elon can’t stop nothing. Not even those teslas that be running off the road.” While a fourth individual plainly stated, “Apartheid Clyde strikes again.”
The Tesla founder is South African and grew up under apartheid. His grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, supported the system that legalized political and economic segregation based on race in the continent.
Amid backlash for what many believe was an attempt at censoring pro-Harris support, the account was reinstated, existing “permanently in a read-only mode.” But Nellis won’t allow the mobilization of white men to be silenced as he continues to promote the group.
Musk has not issued a statement about the matter, however, his timeline shows that he remains active in re-sharing posts accusing Biden and Harris of “importing voters” and calling out Google for alleged interference of search results causing queries about Trump to not properly autocomplete or to populate on the results page.
The billionaire is an open endorser of the convicted felon. His full support for the Republican candidate was publicly announced following the foiled July 13 assassination attempt that left Trump with a superficial ear injury. Subsequent conspiracy theories have claimed the incident was staged, with some questioning the lack of visible injury days later.
Among those who spoke out is former White House photographer Pete Souza, who worked under President Barack Obama’s administration. After sharing a photo on X of Trump going without a bandage on the injured ear, Souza disabled his account, clarifying in an Instagram post that he had not been suspended, despite what his critics believed.
