Although X influencers said Musk’s comments were “breaking news,” the SpaceX CTO has advocated for in-person voting, along with ID requirements, for years.
“We should require government ID and in-person voting (unless valid medical/military/etc excuse), like other countries do or like if you want to buy beer,” said Musk in a comment over two years ago.
We should require government ID and in-person voting (unless valid medical/ military/etc excuse), like other countries do or like if you want to buy beer
In the summer of 2024, Musk also advocated against electronic and drop box ballots. Musk said additional voting methods beyond in-person voting created additional variables that made it much more difficult to detect fraud.
“When combined with mail-in ballots, the system is designed to make it impossible to prove fraud,” said Musk. “Mail-in and drop box ballots should not be allowed, as cameras on the in-person voting stations would at least prevent large-scale fraud by counting how many people showed up vs ballots cast.”
When combined with mail-in ballots, the system is *designed* to make it impossible to prove fraud.
Mail-in and drop box ballots should not be allowed, as cameras on the in-person voting stations would at least prevent large-scale fraud by counting how many people showed up vs…
Last week, Musk backed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, legislation to amend a gap in citizenship proof existing in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.
Proof of citizenship would include a REAL ID-compliant ID, a passport, military ID with proof of U.S. birth, government-issued photo ID card with proof of U.S. birth, or a government-issued photo ID along with a certified birth certificate, an extract from a U.S. hospital record of birth, a final adoption decree, a consular report of birth abroad, a naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship, or an American Indian card.
“It must be done or democracy is dead,” said Musk.
Reps. Eli Crane and Paul Gosar also support the legislation. The pair signed onto a letter urging the Senate to act on the legislation.
Although Musk departed DOGE over certain policy agreements earlier last year, he does agree with President Donald Trump on mail-in voting.
“No mail-in ballots (except for illness, disability, military, or travel),” posted Trump to Truth Social.
Trump had made his criticism of mail-in ballots during public conversations urging the passage of the SAVE Act, though the legislation doesn’t ban mail-in voting. Instead, the legislation would require mail voters to submit an application to receive their ballot.
The president has also issued another call to action not included in the SAVE Act: federalizing elections.
Last Monday the president said in an interview that the federal government should take over elections from the states. He proposed the takeover during the debut of former FBI director Dan Bongino’s newly resurrected podcast. Bongino will also return to his role as a Fox News contributor.
“We should take over the voting in at least many places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” said Trump. “We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes.”
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The man who set fire to a Tesla dealership last April received the minimum sentence possible.
Ian William Moses of Mesa, 35, received five years in prison and three years of supervised release in a sentence handed down last week.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the sentence conveyed nontolerance of political violence and intimidation.
“This sentence sends a clear message: violence and intimidation have no place in our community,” said Mitchell. “Setting fire to a business in retaliation for political or personal grievances is not protest — it is a crime. Our community deserves to feel safe, and this sentence underscores that Maricopa County will not tolerate political violence in any form.”
Similarly, U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine said the sentence was appropriate for Moses’ crimes.
“Arson can never be an acceptable part of American politics. Mr. Moses’ actions endangered the public and first responders and could have easily turned deadly,” said Courchaine. “This five-year sentence reflects the gravity of these crimes and makes clear that politically fueled attacks on Arizona’s communities and businesses will be met with full accountability.”
Early one morning last April, a disguised Moses biked to a Tesla dealership in Mesa. Moses used a gas can and fire starter logs to start the fires.
Moses caused one Cybertruck to explode in his attempt to burn down the dealership, and spray painted the word “thief” on a wall, misspelled as “THEIF.” All the while, surveillance cameras and cameras within the Tesla vehicles captured Moses carrying out his crime.
Mesa officers found Moses about an hour after he committed arson, around a quarter of a mile away from the dealership. Moses was wearing the same clothes and riding the same bike. Police found a hand-drawn map of his target, with a “T” to mark the location of the Tesla dealership.
The Department of Justice sought to prosecute Moses to “the fullest extent of the law” on domestic terrorism charges.
“If you engage in domestic terrorism, this Department of Justice will find you, follow the facts, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No negotiating.”
Tesla arsonist, Ian William Moses, 35, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for starting a fire at a Mesa, Arizona, Tesla dealership, which destroyed a Cybertruck. In April 2025, surveillance cameras caught him pouring gasoline on fire starter logs and igniting. More⬇️ pic.twitter.com/HFjWVT8wTc
Moses faced five counts of malicious damage to property or vehicle in interstate commerce by means of fire. Each count carried the possibility of five years minimum up to 20 years maximum in prison. He pleaded guilty to all five charges.
It appears the court was persuaded by Moses placing the blame on his recent autism diagnosis.
A defense sentencing memorandum filed earlier this month blamed Moses’ high-functioning autism for his decision to commit arson. The defense revealed he had recently received an autism diagnosis leading up to the crime and had been receiving therapy every other week.
The memorandum described Moses as a “kind, gentle, helpful, compassionate, and deeply caring person who would never deliberately hurt anyone.”
Three months before Moses committed his arson in January 2025, anti-Trump activists began targeting Tesla vehicles with arson, gunfire, and vandalism. The attacks were motivated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s senior advisership of President Donald Trump and his appointment to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk left DOGE in May.
In March, a month before Moses carried out his attack, the FBI issued a public service announcement advising of these politically motivated targeted attacks.
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Republican lawmakers, backed by President Donald Trump and prominent allies including Elon Musk, are escalating efforts to impeach Chief Judge James Boasberg, citing a pattern of rulings they allege usurp executive authority, exhibit political bias, and endanger national security.
The campaign gained fresh momentum on October 30, 2025, when Representative Eli Crane (AZ-02) weighed in on Senator Mike Lee’s tweet, “Should Judge Boasberg be removed from office?”
Crane fired back, “Here’s the real question, @basedmikelee: Why hasn’t it happened already?”
Boasberg, elevated to Chief Judge in March 2023 after his 2011 appointment to the bench by President Barack Obama, has become a focal point in GOP frustration during Trump’s second term, as he keeps getting assigned Trump cases.
Republican lawmakers label him an “activist judge” whose decisions repeatedly obstruct administration priorities on immigration, national security, and government efficiency.
In March 2025, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), along with 22 cosponsors, including Arizona Representatives Eli Crane (AZ-02), Abe Hamadeh (AZ-08), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), and Paul Gosar (AZ-09), introduced H.Res.229, impeaching Boasberg for “high crimes and misdemeanors” under a single article titled “Abuse of Power.”
The resolution accuses the judge of violating his oath by substituting his judgment for the President’s under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and interfering with executive orders.
Specific charges include:
Issuing a March 2025 temporary restraining order halting the deportation of hundreds of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members—designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization—without due process.
Ordering mid-flight aircraft carrying deportees to El Salvador to turn around, despite a subsequent Supreme Court ruling permitting the Act’s use with mandated judicial review.
Initiating contempt proceedings against administration officials for “willful disregard” of his order, actions Republicans called a “constitutional crisis” that jeopardizes public safety.
Newly disclosed FBI documents, released in October 2025, revealed that Boasberg approved covert subpoenas for phone records of nine Republican senators during the Justice Department’s January 6 investigation. The orders barred carriers like AT&T from notifying targets, citing “reasonable grounds” they might tamper with evidence. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), among those targeted, denounced the move as a “weaponized legal system.”
Affected senators also include Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
On October 30, Cruz urged the House to impeach Boasberg and seek federal sanctions, stating, “If a judge signs an order reaching a factual conclusion for which there is zero evidence whatsoever, that judge is abusing his power.”
Lawmakers allege the broader probe—conducted under former special counsel Jack Smith—targeted up to 156 Republican lawmakers, conservatives, and organizations at significant taxpayer expense.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
America’s carmakers face an uncertain future in the wake of President Donald Trump’s signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law on July 4.
The new law ends the $7,500 credit for new electric vehicles ($4,000 for used units) which was enacted as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act as of September 30, seven years earlier than originally planned.
The promise of that big credit lasting for a full decade did not just improve finances for Tesla and other pure-play EV companies: It also served as a major motivator for integrated carmakers like Ford, GM, and Stellantis to invest billions of dollars in capital into new, EV-specific plants, equipment, and supply chains, and expand their EV model offerings. But now, with the big subsidy about to expire, the question becomes whether the U.S. EV business can survive in an unsubsidized market? Carmakers across the EV spectrum are about to find out, and the outlook for most will not be rosy.
These carmakers will be entering into a brave new world in which the market for their cars had already turned somewhat sour even with the subsidies in place. Sales of EVs stalled during the fourth quarter of 2024 and then collapsed by more than 18% from December to January. Tesla, already negatively impacted by founder and CEO Elon Musk’s increased political activities in addition to the stagnant market, decided to slash prices in an attempt to maintain sales momentum, forcing its competitors to follow suit.
But the record number of EV-specific incentives now being offered by U.S. dealers has done little to halt the drop in sales, as the Wall Street Journal reports that the most recent data shows EV sales falling in each of the three months from April through June. Ford said its own sales had fallen by more than 30% across those three months, with Hyundai and Kia also reporting big drops. GM was the big winner in the second quarter, overtaking Ford and moving into 2nd place behind Tesla in total sales. But its ability to continue such growth absent the big subsidy edge over traditional ICE cars now falls into doubt.
The removal of the per-unit subsidies also calls into question whether the buildout of new public charging infrastructure, which has accelerated dramatically in the past three years, will continue as the market moves into a time of uncertainty. Recognizing that consumer concern, Ford, Hyundai, BMW and others included free home charging kits as part of their current suites of incentives. But of course, that only works if the buyer owns a home with a garage and is willing to pay the higher cost of insurance that now often comes with parking an EV inside.
Decisions, decisions.
As the year dawned, few really expected the narrow Republican congressional majorities would show the political will and unity to move so aggressively to cancel the big IRA EV subsidies. But, as awareness rose in Congress about the true magnitude of the budgetary cost of those provisions over the next 10 years, the benefit of getting rid of them ultimately subsumed concerns about the possible political cost of doing so.
So now, here we are, with an EV industry that seems largely unprepared to survive in a market with a levelized playing field. Even Tesla, which remains far and away the leader in total EV sales despite its recent struggles, seems caught more than a little off-guard despite Musk’s having been heavily involved in the early months of the second Trump presidency.
Musk’s response to his disapproval of the OBBBA was to announce the creation of a third political party he dubbed the American Party. It seems doubtful this new vanity project was the response to a looming challenge that members of Tesla’s board of directors would have preferred. But it does seem appropriately emblematic of an industry that is undeniably limping into uncharted territory with no clear plan for how to escape from existential danger.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
This past November was a good time to be a Republican, especially here in Arizona. Not only did President Donald Trump win our state in a landslide victory, but Republicans expanded their majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate—despite being outspent in every single race.
While this turn of events shocked many in the corporate media who were convinced that Arizona was on its way from being a purple state to a blue state, we knew that voter registration trends told a different story.
Over the last couple of years, the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in Arizona widened from 3.04% in 2020 to 4.03% in 2022. By April of last year, it had increased to 5.77%. And by November, it had expanded to 6.77%, a registration increase that proved decisive in President Trump’s overwhelming victory.
Now, 5 months removed from their electoral wipeout in November, there has been a lot of discussion about whether the Democrats’ political fortunes in Arizona would be reversing after their blowout loss to Trump.
Unfortunately for them, the latest voter registration numbers poured plenty of cold water on those dreams…
