WASHINGTON, DC (Washington Examiner) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk hasn’t always been former president Donald Trump’s biggest fan.
As recently as 2023, the billionaire entrepreneur indicated it was time for someone fresh: Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
Fast forward to fall 2024, however, and Musk has fallen hard for MAGA. He campaigns enthusiastically onstage with Trump, has spent millions of dollars of his own money through his new super PAC boosting Trump’s ground game, and has possibly put himself in a position to reap the rewards with an active role in the next government — but that only happens if Trump wins a second term.
While it’s never been unusual for moguls and tycoons to insert themselves into election campaigns, Musk’s very direct style could leave him more exposed than others should Vice President Kamala Harris prevail.
Evolution of a Trump super booster
Musk’s evolution into an enthusiastic cheerleader for Trump has been rapid. In May 2023, he said it was time for “someone fairly normal” to run for president, just as he was about to host an interview with DeSantis on X in which the Florida governor launched his unsuccessful campaign. Musk said he voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.
The feeling was somewhat mutual. In July 2022, Trump called Musk a “bulls*** artist” at an event in Alaska, alleging the Tesla CEO had told him he voted for him. Musk, in response, said Trump would be “too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America” by the end of his term, and said, “It’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.”
Fast-forward to this summer, and Musk, enraged by the July 8 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, and moved by Trump’s defiant response, endorsed the former president.
Since then, Musk has poured more than $118 million of his own cash into the pro-Trump super PAC he created earlier this year, called America PAC. It has already spent more than $160 million in supporting Republicans and opposing Democrats, and a little under half of that was spent on boosting Trump specifically, according to OpenSecrets.
