Governing by poll has become a regular gambit for Musk. It promotes his vision of X as a public town square where important decisions are made, and — at least in theory — gives him actual information about what people think. He asked X users whether judges who rule against “the will of the people” should be impeached, and whether DOGE should audit the IRS. (More than two years ago Americans got a preview of this tactic when Musk used a poll to justify his decision to bring then-former President Donald Trump back to the platform.)
For all the debate about whether Musk is or is not some kind of “shadow president,” secretly wielding unchecked power — and all the gossip about where he stands in the never-ending court drama of the Trump White House — his use of X as a would-be legitimizing force points to how he really uses that power. He creates a feedback loop with the platform he owns, to justify any governing decision he wants to make.
He rules by his own whims and uses bots and his shitty audience to circumvent market manipulation laws. The polls are as meaningless as his claims that he’s a free speech absolutist.