After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, roughly one million users signed up for social media site Bluesky, many of them in protest of X’s increasing right-wing tone and owner Elon Musk’s alliance with the Republican candidate.
However, according to one prominent progressive, liberals shouldn’t jump ship from X just yet.
“I think that everything [Musk] has said publicly is he believes in free and open speech, and we need to have more platforms. Now, I don’t think X should be the only platform,” California congressman Ro Khanna, who represents a district in Silicon Valley, told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast. “Not only do I stay, I use it all the time … I don’t think that the answer for progressives is to disengage.”
Khanna has known Musk for years and told the podcast he hopes to find common ground on issues like cutting what they see as exorbitant U.S. spending on the military.
Both the Democrat’s district and his politics make a relationship with Musk and the incoming administration unavoidable.
Khanna, a pro-tech, pro-labor Democrat, represents a swathe of Silicon Valley featuring Tesla’s Fremont factory.
He recently rallied to Musk’s defense over reports that California was considering reviving a tax credit for EVs that would likely exclude Tesla if the federal government follows through with an expected rollback of similar incentives under Trump.
“Tesla makes over 550,000 vehicles in Fremont in my district & employs over 20,000,” Khanna wrote on X. “Let’s not play politics with keeping manufacturing in California. It would be foolish to exclude Tesla.”
Khanna has also praised Trump labor secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer, for her support of the union-focused Pro Act.
“I hope I can work with her to persuade a few other Republicans to pass majority sign up, an increase in the minimum wage, and labor neutrality,” the Democratic rep wrote on X last week.
Pro-labor advocates have expressed cautious optimism over the nomination of Chavez-DeRemer, the daughter of a Teamsters union member, who is more pro-union than the typical GOP member in Washington.
”This record stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s anti-worker, anti-union record, and his extreme Project 2025 agenda that would gut workplace protections, make it harder for workers to unionize, and diminish the voice of working people,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a recent statement.
