Elon Musk was using drugs on a much larger and more “serious” scale than previously thought during the 2024 campaign trail, according to an explosive report.
Musk, the tech billionaire who became arguably the most influential person in President Donald Trump’s inner circle, is alleged to have taken so much ketamine it ended up damaging his bladder, as well as frequently taking ecstasy and magic mushrooms, The New York Times reports.
Musk is also said to have carried a box around with him, which normally contained around 20 pills, including Adderall, according to a photo seen by The Times and others.
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It’s unclear whether Elon Musk continued using an extreme cocktail of drugs while leading the Department of Government Efficiency during Trump’s second term. However, Musk has continued to exhibit erratic behavior. He was accused of giving a Nazi salute at a January inauguration event and appeared frantic and disjointed in interviews and public appearances.
Multiple reports from inside Trumpworld suggested that the frenzied tech billionaire was fraying nerves and wearing out his welcome at Mar-a-Lago and the White House. He even stayed in the Lincoln bedroom, which is usually reserved for visiting world leaders, during sleepovers at the White House that would see Musk raiding the kitchen for midnight snacks and gorging on caramel Häagen-Dazs.
The alleged drug use reportedly occurred during a period of personal turmoil for Musk, including public clashes with estranged children and revelations of previously unknown offspring.
One of his baby mamas, the MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair, told the New York Times that when she began dating Musk he told her that she was the only woman in his life. When she was around six months pregnant, she says he told her that he was also in a romantic relationship with Shivon Zilis, who worked for him at Neuralink.
Musk had also kept the details of his relationship with Zilis secret from Grimes, according to the Canadian singer-songwriter. She told The Times she was furious to learn that Zilis had recently given birth to twins, while a surrogate was pregnant with her third baby with him.
St. Clair, who revealed she had a secret love child with Musk in February, also claimed he had revealed to her that he donated sperm to a Japanese pop star so she could have one of his children.
Musk has admitted to occasionally using small amounts of prescribed ketamine to manage his mental health.
“If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” Musk told former CNN anchor Don Lemon in March 2024.
But sources close to Musk claim he was taking the anesthetic almost daily, and at times mixed it with recreational drugs.
Musk is said to have told people close to him that his ketamine use had become so frequent that it was damaging his bladder, which is a common side effect of the drug among its heavy users. This was around the time that Musk publicly endorsed Trump for president in July 2024.
He also allegedly used ecstasy and magic mushrooms at private gatherings across the U.S. and at least once event overseas.
According to The Times, Musk was even alerted in advance when random drug testing was scheduled at his company, SpaceX.
“Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more,” Philip Low, a neuroscientist and former friend of Musk, told The Times.
The bombshell claims surfaced just as Trump and Musk were set to appear together at a Friday press conference to officially announce Musk’s departure from his federal cost-cutting role.
The Daily Beast has reached out to a Musk spokesman for comment.
Musk’s official position as a “special government employee” requires him to step down after 130 days, with that deadline ending on May 30.
Musk was seen as a hugely influential person in the Trump administration while heading DOGE’s mandate to cut federal spending and “waste.”
This has involved firing tens of thousands of workers, and gutting entire federal departments.
However, Musk is said to have isolated himself among Trump’s Cabinet in recent months due to his erratic behaviour and attempt to overhaul Washington, D.C.
This includes a shouting match between him and Scott Bessent at the White House which allegedly resulted in the treasure secretary yelling “F--- you!” in Musk’s face in April.
Another damming profile on Musk, this time in The Atlantic suggested that Musk role in the Trump administration was being downsized because he was irritating too many people.
“We kicked him out of town,” Rushab Sanghvi, general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees told The Atlantic. “If he had stayed in the shadows and done his stuff, who knows how bad it would have been? But no one likes the guy.”
