Billionaire Elon Musk weighed into a growing Tennessee GOP controversy after conservative activist and Tennessean Robby Starbuck called out Oscar Brock, Tennessee Republican Party (TNGOP) Executive Committee member and committeeman to the National Republican Committee (RNC), for working with The Washington Post to criticize Musk, who Starbuck described as the party’s largest donor tied to Republican campaign wins.
In a Post article published Monday discussing Musk’s relationship with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, “based on interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the relationship between Musk and the White House,” Brock acknowledged that Musk’s financial support is valuable to the GOP while claiming there are risks involved.
“Obviously, we would love to see [Musk] contribute generously. But he brings with him a lot of media attention, and so we want to be careful that he’s spreading the right word … we don’t want him taking sides on issues that aren’t aligned with the party right now,” Brock (pictured above, right) told the outlet.
Brock’s comments to the outlet come just after he drew widespread backlash for publicly vowing to withhold support from GOP incumbents over the federal government shutdown in October, which prompted multiple Republican officials and activists to call for his resignation and raised renewed questions about party unity and leadership within the TNGOP.
On Monday, Starbuck slammed Brock’s inclusion in The Post’s piece, pointing to his past remarks threatening to withhold support from Republican incumbents and arguing that his continued public criticism of party leaders and donors undermines GOP unity in Tennessee.
Who is this knucklehead?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2025
Citing an article detailing Brock’s controversy published by The Tennessee Star, Starbuck posted to X, “I guess it wasn’t enough for our Tennessee RNC member to break the party bylaws by siding with the Democrats and vowing not to support Republican incumbents.”
“Now he’s working with Washington Post to piss off the single largest donor to Republicans wins in [Elon Musk.] Insane,” he added.
Starbuck’s post caught the attention of Musk, who proceeded to ask, “Who is this knucklehead?”
In response, Starbuck accused Brock of clinging to what he described as the “Romney-era GOP” and questioned whether the RNC condones a Tennessee committeeman working with The Post to criticize Musk.
He further pressed RNC leadership on why no action has been taken despite Brock’s earlier threat to withhold support from Republican incumbents unless the government shutdown ended on terms favored by Democrats.
“Is the RNC cool with this? Why have they not taken action already when he threatened not to support incumbents if they didn’t end the shutdown the way Democrats were demanding? [GOP] should step in here,” Starbuck said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Oscar Brock” by Oscar Brock. Background Photo “Washington Post Building” by APK. CC BY 4.0.
There are NO conservative in the TN congress.
I will send my money to:
Massie Knows and Understands the US Constitution. Trump does not!
For folks that do not want to donate online, you can send checks (list occupation) to:
Thomas Massie for Congress
PO Box 821
Newport, KY 41072