Elon Musk said Wednesday that he will not donate to presidential campaigns in 2024.
The Tesla billionaire and SpaceX owner ended speculation that he was considering pumping money into Donald Trump’s campaign after the two met at Mar-a-Lago this weekend.
“To be clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for the U.S. presidency,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media site X, formerly Twitter.
Trump and Musk met at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida, the Sunday before Super Tuesday — along with a few wealthy Republican donors, according to the New York Times.
The meeting immediately sparked speculation that Musk could be bankrolling the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign as they look for a cash infusion amid the rapid spending on lawsuits.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla,
Trump won big victories against Nikki Haley on Super Tuesday, winning fourteen of the fifteen states where Republican primaries were held. Haley ultimately quit the race on Wednesday
Trump won 14 of the 15 states that voted on Super Tuesday during the Republican presidential primaries. His last competitor, former UN ambassador. Nikki Haley ultimately suspended her bid after Tuesday’s defeat, but still declined to support Trump’s 2024 bid.
Musk is currently the second richest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of $200 billion.
The Tesla founder has become more political in recent weeks, posting on social media platform X criticizing Democrat Joe Biden’s woke policies and in particular the administration’s handling of the border crisis.
He has not endorsed any candidate, but theorized that Democrats are pushing open-border policies in an effort to “import” 2024 voters.
On Tuesday, Musk shared an article on DailyMail.com detailing how 320,000 undocumented migrants had been flooded into the US by the Biden administration by 2023, warning that it is “highly likely to be laying the groundwork for something much worse than 11 September. .’
Trump has personally praised the tech mogul to his allies and hopes to secure a one-on-one meeting soon, a source said.
The former president may be looking for financing amid mounting financial problems due to legal troubles.
He currently owes more than $454 million in judgments in New York after a jury ordered him to pay for defaming his rape accuser, E. Jean Carroll, and in a separate civil fraud lawsuit he was fined $364 million imposed.
The legal fees associated with the trials and other charges are said to have cost him approximately $50 million.
Elon Musk met with Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday amid the presidential hopeful’s bid to secure more funding for his campaign, according to sources
Those close to Musk also confirmed that he believes Biden should be removed from office in November, the NYT said.
However, his relationship with Trump was previously somewhat tumultuous.
In 2017, he stepped down from two business advisory boards following Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. In 2022, Trump called him a curse, to which Musk responded that it was time for the ex-president to “sail into the sunset.”
Unlike other billionaires, Musk has not spent much money on political donations, but rather has given to both Republicans and Democrats.
Musk has personally provided funding to politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, George W. Bush and John Kerry.
His companies Tesla and SpaceX have benefited from federal government contracts and subsidies.
Those close to Musk also confirmed that he believes Biden should not get a second term in 2024
Unlike other billionaires, Musk has not spent much on political donations and has previously given to both Republicans and Democrats, including Barack Obama
In recent years, however, Musk has seemingly leaned more toward the Republican Party.
This may be partly due to a criticism from the Biden administration in 2021 after they failed to invite Tesla to an electric vehicle summit.
“Let’s not forget that the White House killed Tesla and excluded us from the EV summit,” Musk wrote in December, more than two years after the trick.
The following year, he encouraged his followers on X, formerly Twitter, to vote in a Republican Congress before the midterm elections.
More recently, Musk appeared to criticize podcast host Bill Maher after the comedian said he would vote for Biden over Trump under almost any circumstance.
“Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a very real disease,” Musk wrote on X.
Musk criticized Biden’s immigration policies, citing an article on DailyMail.com detailing how 320,000 unvetted migrants have been allowed into the US
But his relationship with Trump has previously been rocky, with the two trading partners in 2022
After Musk bought social media platform Twitter in 2022, he reinstated Trump’s account after it was suspended after January 6.
Musk has generally spoken out against the left’s “woke” policies and has repeated right-wing rhetoric on immigration.
“America will fall if it tries to absorb the world,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday.
He also suggested that Democrats are “bringing in large numbers of illegal aliens” to commit voter fraud, despite there being no evidence to support this.
Early in the Republican primary season, Musk gave signals that he wanted to supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis started his campaign with a live-streamed interview with the billionaire, but this did not result in a donation.