OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X and owner of X, formerly Twitter, has been one of the loudest critics of President Joe Biden and his administration, and he has left no mystery about who he does not want as president after the next election.
After President Biden’s furious State of the Union address, in which he mentioned his “predecessor” 13 times, Musk shared the response video of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
An X user responded to the post saying, “The point is, we need a new President,” to which Musk responded, “Yes.”
Musk said he voted for President Biden in the previous election, but in January, he said, “I cannot see myself voting for Biden this time.”
Musk met with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, which began speculation that he would be donating to the former president’s campaign, but after the meeting, he said, “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.”
The statement, as the Wall Street Journal noticed, was carefully worded and left the possibility that he would give other assistance to the former president.
“The Tesla chief executive has said in the past that he is politically independent. Musk has, however, expressed support for Republicans in recent years and has been critical of Democrats and the Biden administration,” The Journal said.
“Musk could still offer financial support by donating to a PAC that supports a candidate or one of the parties rather than donating to a campaign directly,” it said.
CNN analyst Maggie Haberman and anchor Kaitlan Collins also believed that Musk would find a way to assist the Trump campaign.
“The second richest man in the world, Elon Musk, posting on X today, and I’m quoting him now, ‘Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President,’” the host said.
“That, in response to the reporting that he met with Donald Trump in Palm Beach, at his Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend, as his campaign and the candidate himself desperately need money,” she added.
“I’m joined now by one of the reporters who broke that story, New York Times Senior Political Correspondent, and CNN’s political analyst, Maggie Haberman,” Collins said, bringing in her guest.
“Maggie, when you saw that tweet today from Elon Musk—I still call them tweets—how carefully worded do you think that message was? Because I mean, he could theoretically give to a Super PAC, supporting a candidate, without specifically giving to that candidate,” she said.
“Yes, I think you’re hitting on the issue here. He says, to be clear. Well, he’s clear that he’s not giving hard dollars to candidates. And I don’t think anybody expected Elon Musk’s valuable $3,300 checks to be at issue here,” Haberman said.
“I think the bigger issue is whether he would give money to a Super PAC, or a dark money group, where they don’t have to disclose who their donors are. And he did not address either one of those. I think the statement left him some wiggle room.
“Now, that doesn’t mean that he will donate, Kaitlan. I could see a world where he doesn’t write a big check or any check. But that is the hope of people around Trump, is that he does ultimately give money,” she said.
The former president is ahead in many polls and has defeated everyone that was in his path as he marches towards becoming the Republican nominee for president, but his campaign is in need of cash after he has had an onslaught of legal expenses, Reuters reported.
“Trump fell further behind Biden in fundraising in January, according to financial disclosures. Trump’s cash holdings fell to just over $30 million while Biden, who is facing a less competitive process for his Democratic Party’s nomination, said his campaign ended January with about $56 million in cash,” the outlet said.
