The Washington Post backed out of running an ad critical of Elon Musk, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.
The ad features a picture of Musk laughing, along with a cutout image of the White House and large white text that reads: “Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”
“Since day one, Elon has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself,” it continues. “The Constitution only allows for one president at a time. Call your senators and tell them it’s time Donald Trump fire Elon Musk.”
It was followed by the URL FireMusk.org.
Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón said The Post’s advertising sales representative was informed of the nature of the ad and they signed a $115,000 agreement with The Post to run the ad in the Tuesday edition of the paper.
Kase Solomón said the Post reached out on Friday to let them know that they will not be running the ad criticizing Musk without offering an explanation.
“They said, ‘You can have something inside the paper but you can’t do the wrap.’ We said thanks, no thanks because we had a lot of questions,” Kase Solomón told The Hill.
“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?” she asked.
Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, has grown closer with Trump since the November election.
Last fall he decided that the Post would not endorse a candidate in the presidential race, overruling opinion staff members who wanted to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
Amazon also contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund and Bezos attended the inauguration.
