Last Time Elon Musk Worked With Trump, He Flamed Out and Quit in Disgust

"Climate change is real."

On-Again

As Elon Musk's efforts to elect Donald Trump to the presidency reach their endpoint, the populist pair's last alliance could offer a cautionary tale of what's to come.

During the transition to his first White House tenure, Trump appointed Musk to two advisory councils: the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative and the Strategic and Policy Forum. Less than six months later, however, the multi-hyphenate billionaire resigned from both after the first-term president decided to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

"Am departing presidential councils," Musk tweeted back in June 2017. "Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world."

That Twitter-announced renunciation was principled move for Musk — albeit one that's hard to square with his rabid support for Trump over the past year.

Off-Again

To be fair, Musk's political flip-flopping with Trump goes way back.

Despite his gracious offer to unban the ex-president upon his purchase of Twitter, Musk spent much of 2022 beefing with Trump after the GOP candidate called him names on live TV.

"You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump said during an Alaska rally that summer. "I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."

In response, Musk called the candidate a "bull in a china shop" who should "hang up his hat [and] sail into the sunset."

Just two years and a few other traded barbs later, the band was back together with Musk effectively running the Republican candidate's get-out-the-vote operation after Trump once again floated putting him on advisory councils.

Will history repeat itself with a Musk-influenced election? We sure hope not — especially given how much more damage has been done to the environment in the interim.

More on Musk's electioneering: Elon Musk’s Trump PAC Is Absolute Chaos Behind the Scenes