Elon Musk: A PR department’s worst nightmare

By Morgan Whyte

The face of brands such as Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly known as Twitter) have lost $120 billion U.S. as of March 2025. 

Musk’s purchase of X in October 2022 for $44 Billion came under a great deal of scrutiny at the time. Following his purchase the website has lost more than one million of its initial users. 

Tesla, a company purchased by Musk in 2004, was taken over by less agreeable means. Musk started out as an investor, along with some major US financial institutions, but has ended up the face of the brand. 

For the past few months, Musk has been seen at US president Donald Trump’s side in the Oval Office, at Trump’s inauguration (with his four year old son) and frighteningly on the White House lawn selling the president a new Tesla cyber-truck, despite the fact the US president is not permitted to drive himself. 

His involvement in the Department of Government Efficiency, a department new to Trump’s administration, has faced intense scrutiny by not only US citizens but the whole world.  

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump in a Tesla. Credit: Andrew Harnik/ GettyImages

Cheryl Kinloch, Lecturer on the PR course at City of Glasgow college, said: “From an outside standpoint, it feels as though he’s ignoring his PR because they wouldn’t giving him the advice to do the things he’s doing. 

“Many other celebrities have people running their social media because they know it's not going to be very positive for their characters, so he’s showing a lot of his true character by managing himself. 

“However you feel about President Trump, he has a lot of followers. Musk is obviously getting notoriety just by associating himself with Trump. From the outside, it just seems to be a detriment to his reputation and assets.” 

Elon Musk at a political convention with a chainsaw. Credit: AndrewHarnik/ GettyImages

Most criticisms of Musk stem from his seemingly random actions, such as his “Roman salute” at the inauguration speech or his internet feuds with other tech billionaires (or even authors such as Stephen King who has been banned from the site following his criticism of its CEO). 

Kinloch said: “The way he uses his social media is maybe not the best strategy. He’s taking advice from people, then I think he is deciding how he manages it. 

“Even if he’s getting coached in what to say or there’s someone helping him with his communication, I think he’s very much in charge of those platforms.”