Musk deflects question about drug use report as Trump watches

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday deflected a reporter’s effort to ask the mega-billionaire about a New York Times article detailing his alleged drug use during President Donald Trump’s campaign last year and legal drama involving some of the mothers of his children.

Musk, who had led the DOGE government job-slashing initiative for Trump since January, began talking over Fox News reporter Peter Doocy when Doocy asked him at a White House press event about the Times report, preventing the journalist from finishing his question.

The Times earlier Friday detailed what it said was Musk’s consumption of the powerful anesthetic ketamine that “went well beyond occasional uses” and his alleged use of ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms.

“Is this The New York Times?” Musk said in the Oval Office, as Trump sat next to him.

“Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on … Russia-gate?” he asked, referring to articles about Trump’s first presidential campaign.

“I think the judge just ruled against The New York Times for their lies about the Russia-gate hoax, and that they might have to give back that prize,” Musk said. “Let’s move on.”

Musk was a major backer of Trump’s 2024 campaign, spending more than $250 million to help the Republican win a second non-consecutive term in the White House.

His comments Friday were referring to a decision earlier this week by a Florida state appeals court, which declined to pause a defamation lawsuit Trump has filed against members of the Pulitzer Prize board related to their refusal to rescind Pulitzers awarded to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The newspapers in 2018 were jointly awarded the prize for national reporting for “for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.”

The defendants in Trump’s lawsuit asked for a stay of proceedings in the case on the grounds that Trump is currently the president. A pause, they argued, would avoid constitutional conflicts that could arise from Trump proceeding as plaintiff in a civil action on claims that may involve his official conduct while president in his first term.

In Thursday’s ruling denying that request, a three-judge panel on the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal did not rule on the merits of Trump’s claims. Instead, the court said that the right to claim burdens on executive functions belongs to the president, not to his opponents in the case.

“Separation of powers protects the Executive from undue burdens imposed by other branches, not burdens which the Executive willingly accepts,” Chief Judge Mark Klingensmith wrote in the ruling.

CNBC has requested comment from the Pulitzer Prizes about Musk’s comments.

NBC News has not independently confirmed the details in the Times’ article about Musk, who is the world’s richest person, and whose companies include the U.S. government contractor SpaceX.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields, in a statement to NBC, said, “Few CEOs in America would leave the comfort of the C-suite to serve in the federal government. Yet Elon Musk did just that, joining the Trump Administration’s efforts to cut waste, fraud, and abuse.”

“DOGE and its core mission is now embedded in the fabric of the federal government and continues to drive efficiency and save taxpayer dollars,” Fields said. “In just four months, Elon has accomplished more for American taxpayers than many career politicians—a fact often overlooked by the legacy media.”

Fields’ statement did not address Musk’s purported drug use.