Tesla CEO Elon Musk meet the former president Donald Trump on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida, along with anonymous wealthy Republican donors, New York Times report, quoting three people summarizing the meeting.
Trump is attracting donors as he prepares for a general election campaign President Joe Biden. It remains unclear whether Musk will financially support or support Trump and his 2024 campaign.
Musk and a representative for Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump and Musk’s private jets were spotted landing less than an hour apart at Palm Beach airport on March 2. The jets’ whereabouts have been determined first report online by a service called “Elon Jet,” which uses publicly available data to track more than 125 jets of 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 that time.
Musk, who owns X and runs defense contractor SpaceX in addition to Tesla, did not endorse Trump during his 2016 or 2020 campaigns.
Both have had their share of conflicts.
In June 2017, Musk quit then-President Trump’s advisory councils citing his withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate accord.
In 2022, Trump called Musk a “bull artist,” claiming that the Tesla CEO said he voted for Trump in their private conversations. Musk publicly denied that claim and said it was the first time he had voted for a Republican Mayra Flores in a special election in Texas that year.
Musk has publicly criticized Trump and Biden.
“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset,” Musk wrote in a July 2022 tweet. that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency.”
Trump said in a Truth Social post at the time that Musk had come to the White House for help “on all of his subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t run long enough, driverless cars crash or rocket ships go nowhere.” .”
Since Musk acquired Twitter and changed its name to X, he has become more vocal about his political ideology. He also appeared more frequently alongside right-wing political leaders around the world.
In May 2022, Musk accused the Biden administration of doing “everything it can to sideline” and ignore Tesla, despite its dominance in the electric vehicle industry.
In November 2022, after Musk purchased Twitter with financial support from Saudi Arabia, President Biden was asked if Musk was a potential threat to national security. Biden said his “cooperative and/or technical relationships with other countries are worthy of consideration.”
Last year, Musk said he “leaning toward vote for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But DeSantis suspended his campaign in January, endorsing Trump just before 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 to criticize the Biden administration’s handling of immigration in the US. He simultaneously voiced support for Republican candidates, including Marty O’Donnell, the famous video game composer who is running as a Republican for National Assembly in Nevada, and Jeremy Sylestine, a district attorney candidate in Austin, Texas.
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