Trump, Musk’s alliance could threaten Harris in the 2024 election

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Former President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated keynote address in the largest bitcoin The gathering of the last year of the last month began through the last hour.

While many investors, enthusiasts and crypto-curious grew anxious in Nashville, Elon Musk’s private jet flew 200 miles in Memphis, Tennessee.

On July 27, just two weeks after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. Hours later, he was publicly approved Tesla CEO for a second term.

At Nashville’s Music City Center, rumors have been swirling all week that Musk will make a surprise appearance at the conference, and perhaps have a fireside chat with Trump.

Musk doesn’t show it, but he has a lot of it.

“I love Elon. He’s great,” Trump told the crowd. “They approve of me and big endorsements and stuff, but not everyone should have an electric car.”

However, Trump’s comments in Nashville appeared to be a step down from what he said about Musk just a week earlier at a rally in Michigan.

“I like Elon Musk … we have to make life good for us smart people. And he’s really smart,” Trump said at the time. “They give me $45 million a month! Come on. Not $45 million. They give me $45 million. a month.”

He continued, “I mean the other guy, he gives you $2 and you have to bring your lunch, you have to wine and dine.”

So what happened between July 20 in Michigan and July 27 in Nashville to dampen Trump’s praise? The answer seems simple: On July 22, Musk backed off on that promise.

“What’s being reported in the media is simply not true,” Musk told podcaster Jordan Peterson. “I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump.” In a post on X on July 25, Musk said he was donating to political action committees that support Trump “but at a lower level.”

The relationship between Musk, the world’s richest man, and Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, is as unstable as the character. Over the years, they joked, talked to each other, and fought against each other on major issues. But lately, they have emerged as parallel heroes on the right, a group that includes a healthy dose of crypto enthusiasts, and is united in one quest: defeat the Democrats in 2024.

How far Musk is willing to financially support Trump during his campaign, now against Vice President Kamala Harris, is another matter. Musk set up a super PAC called America PAC the day after endorsing Trump, but it’s unclear how much money he donated, and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office said Monday it was looking into the group after complaints about how it collected personal data when it failed. promises to help users register to vote.

The Federal Election Commission’s website shows limited financial contributions from America PAC. The federal filing lists total expenditures of $7.78 million, mostly for two transactions: $3.87 million to “support” Trump and the same amount to “oppose” President Biden.

Based on Trump’s social media comments, more on their relationship may be forthcoming. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday that the two men will speak together next week.

“On Monday night, I’ll be doing a major interview with ELON MUSK – Details to come!” Trump wrote.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Steven Cheung, communications director for Trump’s presidential campaign, said in an email, “Stay tuned! Very exciting stuff!”

In 2022, Musk and Trump are locked Open feuds, public slinging insults at each other on social media, in political rallies and others.

“I don’t hate the guy, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sun,” Musk wrote in a 2022 social media post.

That same year, Trump called Musk a “bull—- artist,” the tech executive said privately that he had voted for him.

What is clear is that Musk will not support Biden’s re-election.

Musk said he was voting for Biden in 2020, but the following year, the president left Musk out of an EV summit at the White House, where he met with top executives from General Motors, Ford and Stelantis. Musk wrote in a tweet“Well, it seems strange that Tesla wasn’t invited.”

Biden is a pro-labor president, while Tesla is non-union and has violated federal labor laws.

In 2022, Musk indicated that he was leaning toward Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, as talk of the 2024 election increased. DeSantis finally launched his presidential campaign in a May 2023 live broadcast on X, which Musk owns. The stream with Musk and his longtime friend David Sacks was a technical disaster, plagued by noise. DeSantis’ campaign failed and officially ended in January.

Two months later, Musk reportedly descended on the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, as Trump tried to rally donor support. In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 11, Trump spoke positively about Musk, saying he had been “friendly with him for years,” had “helped him” during his presidency, and that he “liked him.”

“We obviously have opposing views on this little subject called electric cars,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen. “I’m all for electric cars, but you have to have all the alternatives,” he said, adding that EVs are “very expensive and everything will be made in China.”

Whatever the difference between the two in EVs, they are increasingly aligned politically. Both have described Vice President Harris as a communist and tend to attack anything involving DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). He has been vocal in opposing transgender rights and spreading false reports about non-citizens voting in US elections.

Former Ford CEO Mark Fields says it’s not just about politics for Musk. Among the various companies – Tesla, aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX, social media company X and AI startup xAI – Musk has many projects that could use help from the White House.

“The point is, a positive relationship with the president has a lot of benefits, not just the potential for Tesla, for autonomy or AI or robotics, but other businesses like SpaceX,” Fields said, in an interview last month with CNBC. Brian Sullivan. “You can say to the president, ‘Hey, you know Boeing is screwed, so give me the majority of your business.'”

Trump also said he would place steep tariffs on goods from China, a market where Tesla faces increasing competition.

Musk “knows he can take a tougher stance against China, and it can help him in the U.S., because it’s one of the biggest and most profitable markets,” Fields said.

Since gaining Musk’s support, Trump has returned the compliment.

“I think what he’s doing is very good,” Trump said at the Bitcoin Conference.

On Saturday in Atlanta, Trump continued that theme, telling the audience that he “for electric cars.” He added, “I had to, you know, because Elon supported me so strongly. So, I had no choice.”

Musk, meanwhile, has been moving politically for years, and not only in the U.S. He has developed relationships with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentine President Javier Milei, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and last month visited the Capitol. Hill was a guest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who gave a speech to Congress about the war in Gaza.

Despite his vocal support for Trump, Musk appears to be sticking to his promise not to donate directly to candidates this election cycle, only going the PAC route.

To replace it, Musk uses X to refer to the candidate he likes to his 193 million followers.

On the day of Trump’s speech in Nashville, Musk wrote “Save our children!” along with a video of Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he said he would sign an executive order to cut federal funding for schools “pushing critical race theory” and “transgender crazy.”

Then there was Musk’s retweet of a parody Kamala Harris campaign ad. The video features a voiceover that sounds like Harris saying he was chosen because he was a “primary diversity hire.” The video is not labeled as misleading, which appears to be a violation of the platform’s rules.

While Trump has his fair share of support in tech, beyond Musk, many in the industry are quick to rally around Harris. This week, more than 750 people in and around the venture capital signed the “VCs for Kamala” pledge, which was first announced on July 31.

In an op-ed in the Financial Times on Friday, legendary venture capitalist Mike Moritz took aim at Trump supporters in Silicon Valley and said they “made a big mistake.”

“He was, I suspect, tempted by the notion that because of his means, he would be able to control Trump,” Moritz wrote. “And, I imagine he also committed another cardinal mistake: lying to himself that he would never do what he said or promised.”

— CNBC’s Brian Schwartz and Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.