Donald Trump, who’s urgently in search of new donors to help his presidential marketing campaign, met on Sunday in Palm Seaside, Fla., with Elon Musk, one of many world’s richest males, and some rich Republican donors, in line with three folks briefed on the assembly who spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain a non-public dialogue.
Mr. Trump and his staff are working to seek out extra main donors to shore up his funds as he heads into an anticipated basic election towards President Biden. Mr. Trump has praised Mr. Musk to allies and hopes to have a one-on-one assembly with the billionaire quickly, in line with an individual who has mentioned the matter with Mr. Trump.
It’s not but clear whether or not Mr. Musk plans to spend any of his fortune on Mr. Trump’s behalf. However his latest social media posts recommend he thinks it’s important that Mr. Biden be defeated in November — and individuals who have spoken to Mr. Musk privately confirmed that’s certainly his view.
With a internet price of round $200 billion, in line with Forbes, Mr. Musk might determine to throw his weight behind Mr. Trump and doubtlessly, nearly single-handedly, erase what is anticipated to be Mr. Biden and his allies’ big monetary benefit over the previous president.
Aides to Mr. Trump didn’t reply to a request for remark. Mr. Musk didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Mr. Musk has lengthy portrayed himself as independent-minded, and like many enterprise leaders he has donated to candidates from each events through the years. Not like different U.S. billionaires, he has not spent closely on a presidential election, and his donations have been pretty evenly break up through the years between Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have benefited from federal authorities contracts and subsidies.
An individual near Mr. Musk mentioned his relationship with the federal government had traditionally made him cautious about figuring out too carefully with one political social gathering over the opposite. In 2017, the billionaire famously stepped away from two enterprise advisory councils when Mr. Trump was president over Mr. Trump’s determination to drag out of the Paris local weather settlement.
“Local weather change is actual,” Mr. Musk posted on Twitter in June 2017. “Leaving Paris shouldn’t be good for America or the world.”
The 2 have had different moments of friction. Just a few months earlier than the midterm elections, in the summertime of 2022, he and the previous president traded insults, with Mr. Trump calling him an expletive and Mr. Musk saying it was time for the previous president to “sail into the sundown.”
On the similar time, nonetheless, Mr. Musk was changing into extra open about his choice for the Republican Celebration.
On the eve of the midterms, he instructed his greater than 100 million followers on X — the web site that was known as Twitter till Mr. Musk purchased it in 2022 — that they need to vote for a Republican Congress. He has railed towards what he describes because the left’s “woke” agenda and has attacked Mr. Biden over the file variety of migrants who’ve entered the USA throughout his presidency.
Mr. Musk’s feedback about immigration have grown more and more alarmist. He has recommended that the president’s immigration insurance policies threaten the existence of America itself and have pushed American democracy to the brink. He has recommended that Democrats are “ushering in huge numbers of illegals” to cheat in elections. There isn’t a proof to help his declare of mass voter fraud.
“America will fall if it tries to soak up the world,” Mr. Musk posted on X on Tuesday. Earlier within the day, he posted that the Biden administration’s immigration insurance policies amounted to “treason.”
The individual near Mr. Musk, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, mentioned that if he does get behind Mr. Trump, his views about immigration may have been a big motivator.
Mr. Musk has beforehand raised questions over Mr. Biden’s age and as soon as echoed one among Mr. Trump’s favourite jabs by claiming the president was “nonetheless sleeping” after Mr. Biden didn’t congratulate one among his firms. Mr. Musk has additionally held a grudge towards the president after the White Home didn’t invite Tesla to an occasion on electrical autos in August 2021.
“Let’s not neglect the White Home giving Tesla the chilly shoulder, excluding us from the EV summit,” the Tesla chief govt posted on X in December.
Mr. Musk visited the White Home in September to debate issues round synthetic intelligence, in line with NBC Information, which obtained customer logs. Mr. Biden and Mr. Musk didn’t meet throughout the go to.
After shopping for Twitter in October 2022, Mr. Musk reinstated Mr. Trump’s account. The previous president had been barred from the platform after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, a choice that Mr. Musk had beforehand recommended was a mistake.
Nonetheless, it was removed from clear that Mr. Musk would help Mr. Trump’s presidential bid. Mr. Musk had indicated earlier than the Republican nominating contest that he was leaning towards backing Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Mr. DeSantis kicked off his formal candidacy in a live-streamed audio dialogue with Mr. Musk on X final Could, and there was widespread hypothesis {that a} donation from Mr. Musk to the tremendous PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis would comply with. However it by no means did.
Even when Mr. Musk doesn’t finally determine to donate to a pro-Trump tremendous PAC or spend cash in different methods to assist Mr. Trump, his personal megaphone is substantial. Mr. Musk has 175 million followers on X and has a capability like few others in America to form information protection.
Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.
