The Washington Post backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertisement that would have called for the termination of the Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder who has gained U.S. governmental authority as the head of DOGE, the advocacy group that co-created the ad said.
A spokesperson for Common Cause, which has been a detractor of Musk, confirmed to USA TODAY that the Post backed out of the ad. The Washington, D.C.-based paper signed a $115,000 agreement with Common Cause and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund to run the ad in Tuesday’s paper, The Hill reported.
After submitting artwork to the Post, Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón said she was told they could have the ad inside the paper but not outside as a wrap. “We said ‘thanks, no thanks’ because we had a lot of questions.”
The ad would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday edition of the Post, while also having a full-page section with the same theme inside the paper, Common Cause said, per The Hill.
According to the advocacy group’s spokesperson, Common Cause learned on Friday that the Post would not run the ad criticizing Musk. This decision comes after the Post received widespread backlash for not endorsing a political candidate during the 2024 presidential election, and its owner, Jeff Bezos, openly supported President Donald Trump.
“It’s deeply concerning that our ad was censored and rejected without a valid reason. We believe this is limiting our freedom of expression at a critical time in our nation’s history,” a joint statement emailed to USA TODAY from Solomón and Margaret Huang, Southern Poverty Law Center president & CEO, reads. “This seems to show the Washington Post is feeling pressure to cover the news a certain way.”
USA TODAY contacted the Washington Post but has yet to receive a response.
A Washington Post spokesperson told The New York Times in an emailed statement that the newspaper did not comment on internal decisions related to specific advertising campaigns and pointed to its general guidelines for advertising.
What does the ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad look like?
Common Cause provided USA TODAY with the ad’s design, which featured a large picture of a laughing Musk with his head tilted back, along with a cutout image of the White House and large white text that reads, “Who’s running the country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”
Lower on the first page of the ad, a smaller font text says, “Since day one, Elon has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself.”
“The Constitution only allows for one president at a time. Call your senators and tell them it’s time Donald Trump fire Elon Musk,” the ad reads, followed by the URL FireMusk.org.
The second page of the ad says, “No one elected Elon Musk to any office.”
The Washington Post’s recent political controversies
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the space company Blue Origin, bought the Post on August 5, 2013 for $250 million. Since then, the paper has been scrutinized for some of its decisions when it came to politics, including not endorsing a candidate during the 2024 presidential election.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Post publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol before the luncheon on the inauguration day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second Presidential term in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025.
Solomón expressed concern that the Post’s decision not to run its ad is due to Bezos’ and Trump’s relationship.
“Is it because we’re critical of what’s happening with Elon Musk? Is it only OK to run things in the Post now that won’t anger the president or won’t have him calling Jeff Bezos asking why this was allowed?” Solomón told the Hill.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad declined by The Washington Post; see the ad
