Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with former President Donald Trump and unnamed wealthy Republican donors in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday. New York Times The report quoted three people briefed on the meeting.
Trump is seeking donors as he prepares for his general election campaign against President Joe Biden. It’s unclear whether Musk will financially support or endorse Trump and his 2024 campaign.
Representatives for Musk and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On March 2, Trump and Musk’s private jets were spotted landing at Palm Beach Airport within less than an hour of each other.The whereabouts of these planes are first reported Tracked online through a service called “Elon Jet,” which uses publicly available data to track more than 125 jets owned by politicians, celebrities and executives.
In September 2023, Musk visit the white house to discuss artificial intelligence technology, but he did not meet with Biden at the time.
Musk, who owns X and runs defense contractor SpaceX in addition to Tesla, did not endorse Trump in the 2016 or 2020 campaigns.
The two also had conflicts.
In June 2017, Musk abandoned then-President Trump’s advisory committee, citing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
In 2022, Trump called Musk a “bull artist” and claimed that the Tesla CEO said he voted for Trump in a private conversation between the two. Musk has publicly denied the claim and said the first time he voted for a Republican was for Mayra Flores in a special election in Texas that year.
Musk has publicly criticized both Trump and Biden.
“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and drive off into the sunset,” Musk wrote in a July 2022 tweet. “Democrats should also call off the attack — don’t let it get to this. .” Trump’s only way to survive is to be re-elected as president. “
Trump posted on “Truth Social” at the time that Musk asked the White House for help with “all the many subsidy programs, whether it’s electric cars that don’t go far enough, self-driving cars that crash, or rockets that go nowhere.” “Spaceship”.
Since Musk acquired Twitter and renamed it X, he has become more outspoken about his political ideology. He has also made more appearances with right-wing political leaders around the world.
In May 2022, Musk accused the Biden administration of “doing everything it can to marginalize” and ignore Tesla despite Tesla’s dominance of the electric vehicle industry.
In November 2022, after Musk acquired Twitter with funding from Saudi Arabia, President Biden was asked whether Musk posed a potential threat to national security. Biden said his “collaborative and/or technological relationships with other countries are worthy of attention.”
Last year, Musk said he was “inclined” to vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But DeSantis paused his campaign in January to endorse Trump ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
At the DealBook Summit in November, Musk said, “I will not vote for Biden.”
“I’m not saying I’m going to vote for Trump,” he said. He also described Nikki Haley, who is running against Trump in the Republican primary, as a “pro-censorship” candidate.
On Tuesday, Musk posted on X criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of U.S. immigration. He also expressed support for Republican candidates, including popular video game music composer Marty O’Donnell, who is running as a Republican for Congress in Nevada. Jeremy Sylestine is a candidate for District Attorney in Austin, Texas.
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