Trump wants to punish drug users—but Musk gets a pass
On Friday, The New York Times published a bombshell report detailing co-President Elon Musk’s drug abuse, saying the malevolent billionaire used psychedelic mushrooms, ecstasy, Adderall, and so much ketamine that it was negatively impacting his bladder.
But President Donald Trump has embraced and celebrated Musk, despite the drug abuse, allowing him to take a sledgehammer to the federal government’s functions while at the same time promoting Musk’s personal business ventures.
Trump even plans to celebrate Musk on Friday afternoon, as Musk prepares to leave his role as an unelected bureaucrat to focus on his ailing business empire.
Related | 7 of Elon Musk’s worst co-president moments as he exits White House
“I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social—an event that will most likely be even more highly watched now that the Times’ report dropped and reporters will want to know about Musk’s drug use.
While Trump has embraced the drug-using Musk—despite his erratic behavior and sloppy work that has endangered lives and livelihoods—he has at the same time tried to punish low-income drug users by trying to strip them of their Medicaid and unemployment insurance.
During his first term in office, Trump wanted to allow states to deny people Medicaid coverage if they were illegal drug users.
He also wanted to allow states to drug test people who lost their jobs in order to deny them unemployment insurance—a policy the ACLU opposed because it likely violates Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights to unreasonable government searches if there is no reason to suspect someone is a drug user.
Now in his second term, Trump is trying to slash funding for drug treatment and overdose prevention.
His administration has canceled $11.4 billion in “COVID-era funding for grants linked to addiction, mental health and other programs,” NPR reported in March, cutting research on drug addiction as well as government employees working to help provide treatment and resources to drug users.
In fact, Trump’s administration slashed hundreds of jobs from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration—which seeks to prevent substance abuse and provide treatment to help drug users recover—and folded the organization into the new Administration for a Healthy America.
Trump has so decimated SAMHSA that Democratic senators say it will impact how many people can receive treatment.
“Downsizing SAMHSA into a new ‘division’, dismantling its functions, and firing over half its workforce puts at risk the lives of the 58.7 million Americans who experience a mental health condition and 48.5 million of those who are impacted by a substance use disorder,” Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla of California, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote in a news release denouncing the cuts.
Meanwhile, in Trump’s 2026 budget request, he also proposed cutting $56 million in funding for a program that teaches first responders how to use Narcan—a lifesaving drug that can reverse drug overdose effects. And his administration is also eschewing other harm reduction efforts—like providing fentanyl test strips—in favor of 12-step programs to help drug users, which experts say will lead to more overdoses.
“Programs that provide overdose prevention education and distribute naloxone are also one of the best ways to build trust with people who use drugs. Providers can connect them to treatment and get naloxone in their hands,” the Drug Policy Alliance said in an April news release warning of the impacts of Trump’s proposed budget cuts. “These lifesaving resources are all at risk with Trump’s federal funding cuts. Without these services, we could see a sharp reversal of the progress we’ve made in preventing overdose deaths.”
Ultimately, the fact that Trump is fine with Musk’s drug use while at the same time trying to punish low-income drug users can likely be boiled down to one thing: Musk has been useful to Trump, bankrolling his campaign to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars that helped Trump win and take his lucrative grift to the White House. Meanwhile, low-income drug abusers are not useful for him.