Katie Miller, a veteran of the Trump administration, stirred up confusion in the clean energy corners of the internet this month with a flurry of X posts supporting solar.
“Solar energy is the energy of the future. Giant fusion reactor up there in the sky — we must rapidly expand solar to compete with China,” Miller posted on Feb. 4. At least five more posts followed.
The out-of-the-blue endorsement of technology Trump administration officials are actively blocking has fueled speculation that Miller is being paid by the solar industry, Elon Musk, or some amalgamation of the two. She has worked for Musk, whose companies including Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX are invested in solar technology. Miller shared several polls that solar companies paid Republican strategists Tony Fabrizio and Kellyanne Conway to conduct, which show that a majority of Trump voters back the industry.
Miller first shared a poll commissioned by First Solar, a U.S.-based solar manufacturer that touts that its supply chains aren’t linked to China. The poll of more than 800 Republican voters found that 51% supported utility-scale solar, a share that jumped to 70% if projects have no ties to China.
Then on Feb. 21, both Miller and Musk posted on X about a poll commissioned by American Energy First, a coalition that emerged in January and is composed of companies and groups dedicated to supporting solar energy in the U.S. “to promote economic growth and national security,” the website says. The poll found that 75% of likely voters in five red states (Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas) agreed that the solar industry should be used in the U.S. “to strengthen and increase our energy supply.”
American Energy First — which has not yet publicly disclosed its backers — reshared Miller and Musk’s comments about how solar is on track to surpass coal in total installed capacity before the end of 2026. The American Energy First account on X had just 5 total followers as of Feb. 25, including two officials from the Solar Energy Industries Association and several reporters.
Miller, First Solar, and American Energy First didn’t return requests for comment, and neither did Tesla nor xAI.
Solar’s influencer campaign
SEIA has paid conservative influencers to promote solar. The group’s former president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper, who stepped down in January, said that solar industry officials for years have talked about how to build political strength, which requires more funding and new strategies.
“We paid some super conservative influencers during H.R. 1,” Hopper said last week on an episode of the podcast Energy Empire, referring to the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill that accelerated the phase-out of solar tax credits for developers and homeowners. “That’s what it takes. We shouldn’t be embarrassed about it. We should be doing [opposition] research. We should be hiring influencers. We should be addressing all of the social media channels. We cannot keep doing things the way we’ve always done them.”
One example: SEIA has hired C.J. Pearson, a conservative influencer, to promote solar to his more than 180,000 followers on TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reported, as part of a larger story documenting how corporate and foreign interests are using methods beyond lobbyists to try and influence the Trump administration.
The deal is aimed at countering Trump’s attacks on renewable energy, which are ongoing. SEIA and congressional Democrats have blasted the Interior Department for slowing federal permitting of solar projects to a halt. Last year, Interior also cancelled Esmerelda 7, a more than six gigawatt solar project on federal land in Nevada, while the Energy Department terminated the $7 billion Solar for All grant program designed to bring residential solar to an estimated 900,000 low-income households. DOE also canceled funding for a program in Puerto Rico that was building solar and storage systems at hospitals and community housing.
SEIA declined to comment on whether they’re paying Miller, but Hopper — who left her role leading the organization just last month — said in a LinkedIn post that she has “no idea” who, if anyone, is behind Miller’s newfound support for solar. Hopper speculated that it could be connected to Miller’s prior employment with Musk, or simply because of the polling suggesting Trump voters like the resource. Regardless, she said she hopes more Trump allies would shift Miller’s way.
“We need more MAGA influencers following her lead, sharing the facts about the important role solar and storage plays, and will continue to play, in our nation’s energy future and in our nation’s global competitiveness,” Hopper said.
The Miller-Musk connection
SEIA has long been the leading voice of the solar industry in U.S. politics. However, Musk’s close — and more recently, fraught — relationship with the Trump administration, plus his business interests in solar, makes him an influential figure in the industry.
Tesla this month announced the launch of a new solar panel, and said it was ramping up solar module production after letting the business retrench for years. Musk told investors on the company’s latest earnings call that solar is integral to the company’s new mission of “amazing abundance,” and that Tesla will target 100 GW of annual solar production. (Tesla is a member of SEIA, and a top Tesla executive, Kiran Kumaraswamy, is a board member of the trade group.)
SpaceX, which acquired xAI, wants to launch 1 million satellites to orbit the Earth and harness solar power for AI data centers, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.
For more on Musk’s ambitions in space-based data centers, listen to this episode of Latitude Media’s Open Circuit podcast:
Miller was a spokeswoman for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency project, which slashed hundreds of thousands of federal employees last year, including across DOE. After leaving that role, Miller briefly worked for xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, before leaving to start her own podcast, Axios reported. Miller interviewed Musk on her podcast in December; however, they didn’t discuss solar.
xAI owns a massive data center campus in Memphis that powers the controversy-ridden chatbot Grok. The company is building a solar project to help power the facility — though it currently relies on gas turbines, which local residents complain are flouting air pollution limits.
None of Musk’s companies returned a request for comment.
