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Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, and influential social media platform X, appears to being all-in on Donald Trump for 2024 after he became the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
After a jury in Manhattan found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts related to a hush money payment made ahead of the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Musk took to his platform to express his shock and bewilderment at the entire situation.
“Indeed, great damage was done today to the public’s faith in the American legal system. If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate,” he wrote.
Musk’s remarks about the Trump trial are in line with comments he has increasingly made over the past year about domestic and foreign issues. “Now he is reportedly exploring what could be his next political project: Becoming an adviser to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal,” CNN noted on Thursday.
According to a report by the Journal, which cited anonymous sources, Musk has entertained the idea of advising Trump in the event of his victory in the 2024 election. Musk reached out to Trump directly through a cellphone call to discuss a position that might afford Musk considerable sway over US policies. The report by the Journal did not clarify who initiated the discussions regarding the potential advisory role.
The Trump campaign did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment; Musk also did not respond to the Wall Street Journal, but Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign spokesperson, told the outlet: “President Trump will be the only voice of what role an individual plays in his presidency.”
Musk also pushed back on the report Thursday in an X post, CNN noted: “There have not been any discussions of a role for me in a potential Trump Presidency.”
CNN added:
However, a potential role in a future Trump administration could expand upon the role that Musk played in the previous Trump administration, when he served on two business advisory councils before quitting them over Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.
The privilege of whispering in Trump’s ear, should he win reelection, could give the billionaire – who is increasingly steeped in the rhetoric and imagery of the conservative culture wars – even more power on the global stage. Reporting that Musk and Trump’s relationship has improved comes after Musk’s politics have become more aligned with Trump’s.
Musk has increasingly aligned himself with conservative causes, CNN continued. He has publicly opposed Covid-19 lockdowns and expressed support for anti-vaccine stances. Since purchasing the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022, he has promoted free speech on X and, unlike the previous leadership of the platform, has chosen not to censor conservative speech. Additionally, he has endorsed various arguments opposed to President Biden’s virtual open borders immigration policies.
According to The WSJ:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have discussed a possible advisory role for the Tesla leader should the presumptive Republican nominee reclaim the White House, the latest sign that the once-frosty relationship between the two men has thawed.
The role hasn’t been fully hammered out and might not happen, people familiar with the talks said, but the two men discussed ways to give Musk formal input and influence over policies related to border security and the economy, both issues on which Musk has grown more vocal.
The Biden campaign on Thursday lashed out at the idea of Musk and Trump working together, CNN noted.
“Despite what Donald Trump thinks, America is not for sale to billionaires, oil and gas executives, or even Elon Musk,” Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson James Singer said in a statement. “Trump is selling out America to pay his legal bills and put himself in power, while all billionaires like Elon see is a sucker: They know if they cut him campaign checks, he’ll cut their taxes while he cuts Social Security and other benefits for the middle class.”