Elon Musk Drew Winces From Billionaires’ Gathering With Trump Pitch
Some people in the crowd of rich donors reportedly winced and shook their heads after the world’s richest man told them they should tell their friends to vote for Donald Trump.
NurPhoto/Getty
Elon Musk reportedly urged a group of fellow billionaires and top political strategists in February to tell their friends to vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 election because he believes the GOP candidate will stop illegal immigration.
Some in the crowd at an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach owned by activist investor Nelson Peltz shook their heads and winced after Musk’s backing of Trump, according to The Washington Post.
The X owner, who went public with his Trump endorsement after his assassination attempt on July 13, allegedly launched into a “lengthy discussion of illegal immigration” at the Feb. 16 meeting after initially saying he wasn’t a big supporter of Trump.
Musk reportedly claimed that President Joe Biden’s policies would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to cross over from Mexico into the U.S. and derail the country’s economy. It would also change the demographics to hurt the GOP’s chances in elections for years to come, he was quoted as saying.
The Post reported that Musk told fellow guests, who included former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, that his experience growing the Tesla brand had taught him the importance of word of mouth.
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Musk’s reservations about Trump included a concern that he might use donor money to pay his spiraling legal bills. Musk later helped launch a fund-raising group, America PAC, targeting Silicon Valley investors interested in donating to Trump.
The world’s richest man said he supported Biden in 2020 but switched his allegiance to Trump and reportedly lobbied for J.D. Vance to be his running mate.
But the two men don’t appear to agree on everything. After the assassination attempt, Trump told a rally in Michigan: “Elon endorsed me the other day and I read, I didn't even know this. He didn’t even tell me about it, but he gives me $45 million a month.”
Musk, in an interview with conservative psychologist Jordan Peterson, said that “what’s been reported in the media is simply not true. I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump.”
He explained that he was donating to his America PAC, with the cash to be used “on the Democrat and Republican side.”
He said his slogan is MAG, to Make America Greater.
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