Musk initially celebrated his White House car show on Tuesday, but his posts on X eventually took a darker turn. By Wednesday, he was promoting theories that protests and vandalism at Tesla dealerships were part of a Democrat-funded effort to undermine him.

The head of President Donald Trump’s government efficiency effort, Elon Musk, is emerging as a messaging punching bag for Democrats as they pick up the pieces of their stinging defeat in last year’s elections and search for a winning message for 2026.