Elon Musk touts Trump's longtime foe as 'the only option'

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is once again coming out against one of President Donald Trump's key agendas.

According to The Daily Beast, "Trump announced the latest escalation of his long-running war on windmills on Wednesday, writing in a Truth Social tirade that he would ban all new solar and wind power projects — despite growing electricity demand across the country" — saying on Truth Social that "Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS ... We will not approve wind or farmer-destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!"

But Musk sharply disagrees.

In a series of posts this week, Musk replied to other users on X criticizing the Trump administration's attacks on solar power, particularly, saying that "Solar is the only option that scales" — and amplifying a post from another user saying, “This is absolutely short-sighted because solar is exponentially more scalable, unlike gas. So, once data center demand collides with turbine/transformer limits, solar wins on scalability. The US is shooting itself in the foot. The wind part I understand, but fading solar is crazy work.”

Many of the states where solar power has seen huge growth in recent years voted for Trump. Last year, Texas alone installed over 10 gigawatts of solar capacity.

Trump has extensively attacked solar power, as well as wind power, which he has baselessly claimed causes cancer and poses threats to wildlife.

Musk heavily bankrolled Trump's 2024 campaign and headed up his Department of Government Efficiency task force to downsize the federal government. However, the two fell out over certain contentious administration appointments and Trump's tax megabill, which Musk slammed as an "abomination" and threatened to launch his own political party to oppose.

The billionaire has since backed off much of his opposition to Trump, but has been relatively silent on political issues over the last few weeks.