The Trump White House is typically game to spin any narrative lobbed its way, but reports about Elon Musk’s rampant drug use appear to be another story.

Following The New York Times’ shocking report that Musk, while acting as a senior adviser to Donald Trump, was regularly consuming large amounts of drugs, reporter Megan Twohey appeared on MSNBC to discuss the story. In the process, she revealed that the White House had refused to answer questions put to them about whether or not they had administered drug tests to Musk during his tenure.

Musk’s SpaceX similarly did not respond to questions from the Times, specifically about whether the company gave Musk advance notice of the “random” drug tests it administers to its employees, something it reportedly began doing after he infamously smoked weed during his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. SpaceX, as a large government contractor, is required to maintain a drug-free workforce.

  • SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee
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    20 hours ago

    Im sure that they’re just trying to build a really strong case against him. I mean drugs are illegal….

  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Wait, is that what “drug-free workplace” means, that not a single employee does drugs in their off time? That’s wild. I assumed it was a sign companies posted as a CYA in case they wanted to fire anyone for bringing drugs on premises.

    • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
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      What it means in corporate America and what it means at a company that works with government contracts is two different things. The federal government mandates strict drug testing at companies they give contracts to. Most companies dont voluntarily choose to be that restrictive with testing

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Notably, the feds have a really hard time keeping good computer people around. It’s hard to run NSA when all of the best programmers and IT people smoke in their off time.

        • utopiah@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          all of the best programmers and IT people smoke in their off time.

          Bit much… probably a lot of the best but definitely not all.

          Anyway, yes, sorry for being finicky, but also that those same people can probably find another workplace which do not care about that AND pays more.

    • auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Anywhere that does random checks, which is a large part of the US workforce, will pick up people doing drugs on their off time.

        • auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          Probably cause management all takes drugs and they’re doing it for insurance purposes, not government contract obligations.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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            Oh yeah, it would be actively bad business practice to drug test at restaurants. I just figured it was like the “employees must wash hands before returning to work” signs, where hanging the sign is the extent of the business’s obligation. I didn’t realize drug-free workplaces implied no off-premises drug usage from any employees.

        • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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          Those signs are also there to allow companies to test if they hit a problem employee not keeping their shit under control.

    • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Yeah. If he just stayed with pot I think we’d be better off. Whatever other cocktail he is on is really not helping anyone. But I think if he drops it he’s going to do something insane with the withdrawals.

  • teamevil@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Funny this story then Musk has a black eye. I bet he threw a temper tantrum and they leaked this story.

  • doug@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    “Come clean” in this context means “go sober.” They are all refusing to go sober.

  • 800XL@lemmy.world
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    There’s been talks that Elon would use ketamine as a suppository. Also that he was no stranger to fentanyl.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      There’s been talks that Elon would use ketamine as a suppository.

      I bet you just pulled that one out of his ass…

  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    “Rampant drug use” but apparently no shrooms, can’t be opening his mind to not being a shit stain Nazi after all

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      Psychedelics don’t help people like this. The article says the was taking ecstasy and psychedelics (I think, I’m not going to open to article to again to check).

      People like this get nothing more than “ohhh pretty colors” out of it. At best.

      • MrVilliam@lemm.ee
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        This is true. Teenage me only got snippets. I noticed the standardized metal road behemoths that people commanded at life-ending speeds, but otherwise just “plants pretty”.
        At 30+, I thought more about how I would interface with gods or aliens or both as an ambassador advocating for the continued survival of the species, and I saw that that’s a tough fucking sell at this point. I explored my own role as a person and came to understand that somewhere along the line, I’ve somehow transitioned from being a child to an unqualified adult, and now to an accomplished provider with notable lived experiences. As a result, I’ve started to aim to live up to that a little better.

        These people don’t experience the ego death necessary to significantly grow. Mushrooms teach you to confront uncomfortable truths about yourself, and with some humility you may have an opportunity to reconcile to some degree. It’s a tool, not a toy.

        • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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          Everything I read about shrooms makes me think it’d be a productive experience for me to try them, but it’s something I’d want someone sober around to trip sit for safety, but if I had someone in my life I felt safe being that vulnerable with I’m not sure I’d feel the need to try them as much. Hmm. :/

          • MrVilliam@lemm.ee
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            Having a trip sitter would be ideal, but isn’t fully necessary so long as you start small. Don’t take more than 2 grams (assuming you’re an average size adult male) and you’ll be fine. You’ll have some nausea which is normal, so don’t eat a ton or drink anything acidic or bubbly before. The part of your brain that gets tickled for psychedelic effects is either the same or next door to the nausea part of your brain, so just get through the first wave of tummy gymnastics and the rest is therapeutic meditation. Watch clouds, look at bugs in the grass, touch tree bark. Be in our natural world. Just be somewhere safe and comfortable where you don’t need to be concerned about being judged. Idk how people can enjoy it in a public setting lol. Or more often than like once per year.

            It’s been a while for me, but you bring things back with you from a trip. It helps you to tear yourself down so you can rebuild a little differently.

      • baltakatei@sopuli.xyz
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        I think the cognitive reset that psychedelics can awaken come in basically two varieties: delusions of grandeur or empathy. Elon Musk has benefitted from privilege, luck, and the immunity to consequences that comes from being a figurehead leader for people who expect him to make the right noises to support their cause. This lucky run has fueled his fantasy of making humans an interplanetary species like in his Iain M. Banks science fiction novels that he uses to name his SpaceX vehicles.

        In Elon Musk’s case, engineers at Tesla and SpaceX have shared his technocratic vision up until he tried to adopt Trump’s Maga base away from Trump (e.g. with his fascist Nazi salute). Engineers of solar panels, self-driving cars, and space vehicles have to have a minimum level of empathy to deal with the stresses of working in teams to overcome difficult problems; most probably genuinely want to help humanity by expanding capitalism to asteroid mining and Mars colonies; the Maga mob, though, have much more grounded ambitions of restoring their socioeconomic dominance over cultures not their own. Attempting to curry favor with both at the same time only works if your leadership inspiring improvements in solar panel, self-driving car, and space technology dominate news stories with success after success, building and maintaining momentum beyond what Trump can disrupt with his own media stunts like the tariff posturing. But Trump has succeeded in making the Maga faction feel victimized and dominated the news cycle so far in 2025.

        Elon and Trump are both salesmen, but the latter only has to break things to get attention. So, I am not surprised that Elon finds solace in mind-altering drugs to comfort himself from the realization that his support base simply is smaller than Trump’s.

    • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
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      Shrooms often “enhance” your mind. They don’t necessarily make you more open minded. If you were already an open minded person they will likely enhance that. If you were a right wing Nazi they’re most likely going to enhance that too.

      People act like drugs are some mind opening experience. And to an extent they are. But, they don’t reveal something to you like a message from God. They allow your mind to be revealed without restrictions. To learn things about your mind that it was hiding.

      This can be a positive or negative experience depending on who you are.

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      People who open their mind with drugs, and immediately fill that open mind with alt right social media echo chambers just get more set in their ways than before.

      Musk’s always been a dick but he’s grown much worse on ketamine+Twitter.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    Well, I mean, if they came clean on Musk, they’d have to come clean on everyone, and we know how much drugs they did the last time around.

  • 60d@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Sounds fun! I’d love to party with this guy, if only to feel sorry for him.

    Lol, lmao even.

  • Auli@lemmy.ca
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    What I don’t get it was widely known he was on drugs and he admitted it multiple times about doing Ketamine. Why is this a storey.