Former president Donald Trump is desperate for some much-needed cash to keep his presidential bid going.
That's just one reason it's striking that over the weekend, Trump reportedly met with multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk, alongside a handful of Republican donors.
According to the New York Times's sources, however, Trump is still hoping to meet one-on-one with Musk.
Is one of the richest men in the world really considering funding the election campaign of a convicted fraudster and renowned racist?
Under normal circumstances, it'd be hard to believe. But given Musk's hard turn into far-right talking points, it's not entirely out of the question. Musk has also repeatedly suggested that Biden must be voted out of the White House.
Needless to say, Musk's fortune of just shy of $200 billion could easily give Trump a much-needed financial edge over his Democrat rival.
Historically, Musk has only made relatively small political donations, and more or less evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, as the NYT points out.
Trump and Musk also haven't always seen eye to eye, with the former president accusing Musk of sucking up to him during his tenure.
"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless," he wrote in a post on Truth Social in 2022. "Telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it."
In response, Musk tweeted that "it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset."
In the wake of his disastrous acquisition of Twitter, however, Musk's political alignment has shifted to the right considerably, making inflammatory and deeply racist comments and railing against pro-immigration policies.
Meanwhile, Trump has made similarly racist comments in the past, and has made immigration a central campaign issue. Last year, Trump promised he would send troops to the US-Mexico border if elected, a move that Musk likely wouldn't oppose.
"America will fall if it tries to absorb the world," Musk tweeted this week. On Monday, the mercurial CEO accused Biden of "treason" when it comes to his immigration policies.
In January, Musk vowed he would not vote for Biden in the upcoming election. This week, he also criticized the left for irrationally hating everything to do with Trump.
But does all of that amount to a full endorsement of the former president? Given the two's aligning ideologies, especially when it comes to immigration, it's not out of the question.
More on Musk and Trump: Donald Trump Attacks Elon Musk With Vicious Fury
Share This Article