Musk gets slap on wrist from Trump administration – Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
The Securities and Exchange Commission is letting Elon Musk off easy, despite allegations that he violated federal securities law.
President Donald Trump’s SEC announced on Tuesday that it had settled with Musk for $1.5 million over a lawsuit filed in 2025 alleging that he broke the law during his acquisition of Twitter, now known as X. The sum is far less than the $200 million Musk’s lawyers previously said the government had demanded in settlement. It is also a miniscule sum for Musk, who is the richest person on the planet and worth nearly $800 billion.
Musk was sued on Jan. 14, 2025, in the final days of then-President Joe Biden’s administration. The SEC alleged that in his 2022 purchase of Twitter, Musk failed to make required regulatory filings about the pending deal that “allowed him to underpay by at least $150 million” for shares of Twitter.
Robin Andrews, the original lead lawyer on the SEC’s case, resigned from his position in April 2025. Fortune reported at the time that sources close to Andrews said he had raised concerns that officials at the agency appointed by the incoming Trump administration would dismiss the case or settle it for a small penalty. Those fears have been proven true.
The current chairman of the SEC is Paul S. Atkins, who comes from the cryptocurrency industry. Since his appointment by Trump, Atkins has sought to ease federal oversight of companies, giving them the leeway to increase profits often at the expense of consumer rights.
Musk donated millions to help Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign and continues to donate to Republican causes and campaigns. Early in his second term, Trump made him the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the corruption-plagued agency that has hobbled and destroyed key governmental programs, likely causing hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
After Trump came back into office, multiple federal investigations and probes of Musk’s multiple companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, were halted or slowed down.
During Musk’s ownership, X has become a haven for white supremacists, like Musk himself, who frequently promotes white supremacist memes and disinformation. The site has also become a source of international concern for its alleged dissemination of nonconsensual sexual material, including imagery of minors.
The Trump administration has not expressed real concerns about these developments and has instead used the site to spread its own bigoted material.
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