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Donald Trump, who’s urgently looking for a money infusion to assist his presidential marketing campaign, met on Sunday in Palm Beach, Fla., with Elon Musk, one of many world’s richest males, and some rich Republican donors, based on three folks briefed on the assembly who spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain a non-public dialogue.
Mr. Trump and his workforce are working to search out further 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, based on 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. But his current social media posts counsel 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 web value of round $200 billion, based on Forbes, Mr. Musk might resolve to throw his weight behind Mr. Trump and probably, nearly single-handedly, erase what is anticipated to be Mr. Biden and his allies’ large 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. Unlike 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 party over the opposite. In 2017, the billionaire famously stepped away from two enterprise advisory councils when Mr. Trump was president over Mr. Trump’s resolution to drag out of the Paris local weather settlement.
“Climate change is actual,” Mr. Musk posted on Twitter in June 2017. “Leaving Paris is just not good for America or the world.”
The two have had different moments of friction. A number of 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.”
At the identical time, nevertheless, Mr. Musk was turning into extra open about his desire for the Republican Party.
On the eve of the midterms, he informed 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 report variety of migrants who’ve entered the United States 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 any proof to assist 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 particular person near Mr. Musk, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, mentioned that if he does get behind Mr. Trump, his views about immigration can have been a major motivator.
Mr. Musk has beforehand raised questions over Mr. Biden’s age and as soon as echoed certainly one of Mr. Trump’s favourite jabs by claiming the president was “still sleeping” after Mr. Biden didn’t congratulate certainly one of his firms. Mr. Musk has additionally held a grudge towards the president after the White House didn’t invite Tesla to an occasion on electrical autos in August 2021.
“Let’s not neglect the White House giving Tesla the chilly shoulder, excluding us from the EV summit,” Mr. Musk, the Tesla chief govt, posted on X in December.
Mr. Musk visited the White House in September to debate issues round synthetic intelligence, based on NBC News, 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 former 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.
Still, it was removed from clear that Mr. Musk would assist 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 May, and there was widespread hypothesis {that a} donation from Mr. Musk to the tremendous PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis would observe. But it by no means did.
On Monday, Mr. Musk appeared to criticize the tv host Bill Maher, who mentioned in a clip posted to X that he would vote for Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump in most any circumstance.
“Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a really actual illness,” Mr. Musk wrote in response on X.
Even if Mr. Musk doesn’t in the end resolve 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.
