NYT claims Musk is addicted to drugs

US President Donald Trump’s adviser has reportedly been consuming copious amounts of ketamine and other substances

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a major ally of US President Donald Trump, has been consuming an alarming amount of drugs, the New York Times alleged on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report came out shortly after Musk announced that he would step down from his leadership role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force aimed at cutting wasteful US federal spending.

Although the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and X had admitted in the past to taking ketamine prescribed for depression about every two weeks, the NYT wrote that he has “developed a far more serious habit,” as his drug consumption “went well beyond occasional use.”

The Times cited its sources as saying that Musk had been using ketamine “often, sometimes daily,” and mixing it with other drugs, as well as taking ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms.

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The businessman reportedly travels with a daily medication box that contains about 20 pills, including ones marked as Adderall, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He has also been warned in advance about random drug tests of SpaceX employees, the Times said.

In 2018, the Times reported that some board members at Tesla were worried about his use of the sleep drug Ambien. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that senior executives at SpaceX and Tesla were also concerned about Musk’s consumption of drugs, including LSD and cocaine.

Musk dodged a reporter’s question about his alleged drug use at a press conference with Trump at the Oval Office on Friday, dismissing the Times as “the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on Russiagate.”

He said in 2024 that “not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol” in his system over the three years of tests at SpaceX.

Musk said that his departure is “not the end of DOGE,” whose team will grow over time. “I will continue to be visiting here and be a friend and adviser to the president,” Musk said at the White House.