Analysis by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump is the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee on the heels of his Super Tuesday knockout wins and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s long-awaited decision to drop out of the race.
With the primary season locked down tight and early, Trump has turned his attention to the general election, where he is set to duel once again with Joe Biden and the Democrat machine at the ballot box in November.
Amid the election season, Trump has garnered a sparkling slate of endorsements from lawmakers, pastors, businessmen, and leaders across the nation and beyond – even Hungarian President Viktor Orban recently offered an official endorsement for the 45th president’s 2024 campaign.
Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world and the CEO of three prominent companies (X, Tesla, and SpaceX), has swiftly skirted around lending his endorsement to any political candidate in the race so far, although his most recent statements on stances on the illegal immigration crisis seem to suggest that President Trump would, in theory, be a candidate whom he could easily support.
“Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President,” Musk wrote on X last week.
His statements appear to be written in response to a story that was published in The New York Times that reported Musk had visited with Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, just two days before the Super Tuesday onslaught of primary elections.
Per their report:
“It’s not yet clear whether Mr. Musk plans to spend any of his fortune on Mr. Trump’s behalf. But his recent social media posts suggest he thinks it’s essential that Mr. Biden be defeated in November — and people who have spoken to Mr. Musk privately confirmed that is indeed his view.”
It seems that Musk has put the rumor of monetary support to rest with his comment, but several months remain before the election, and it remains to be seen if he would be willing to publicly support Trump ahead of November.
President Trump was asked about his reported meeting with Musk during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday morning and whether he believed the Tesla CEO would support the MAGA campaign.
Trump replied, “I don’t know – look, I’ve been friendly with him over the years, I helped him when I was president; I helped him, I like him. We obviously have opposing views on a minor subject called electric cars.”
He added, “I’m all for electric cars, but you have to have all of the alternatives, also.”
Trump explained that the grid system in America was “obsolete” and slammed Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, which he argued would not even be a possibility with the grid issues in the U.S. today.
He added that “the auto workers are going to vote for Trump.”
Trump deftly dodged the question of whether Musk was planning to support his 2024 campaign, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Musk has pushed hard for free speech in America by purchasing X, much like Trump has pushed for free speech on his platform, Truth Social. Both men are also motivated to protect America’s interests first, a desire likely borne out of an understanding of capital markets and national and global business.
While it remains to be seen if Musk will make a political endorsement in the 2024 presidential election, he has brought a great deal of attention to the illegal immigration crisis among Gen Z and Millennials, which is, at the very least, hurting Biden’s chances of reelection.
