Elon Musk Is Going All In to Elect Donald Trump - The New York Times
By: Theodore Schleifer Maggie Haberman Ryan Mac and Jonathan Swan (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Elon Musk is planting himself in Pennsylvania, has brought his brain trust to help and may even knock on doors himself.
In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the richest man in the world has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history.
Elon Musk, seen over the weekend jumping for joy alongside former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., is now talking to the Republican candidate multiple times a week.
He has effectively moved his base of operations to Pennsylvania, the place that he has recently told confidants he believes is the linchpin to Mr. Trump's re-election.
He has relentlessly promoted Mr. Trump's candidacy to his 201 million followers on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter that he bought for $44 billion and has used to spread conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party and to insult its candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Above all, he is personally steering the actions of a super PAC that he has funded with tens of millions of dollars to turn out the vote for Mr. Trump, not just in Pennsylvania but across the country. He has even proposed taking a campaign bus tour across Pennsylvania and knocking on doors himself, in part to see how his money is being used.
Taken together, a clear picture has emerged of Mr. Musk's battle plan as he directs his efforts to elect Mr. Trump with the same frenetic energy and exacting demands that he has honed at his companies SpaceX, Tesla and X.
These days, in private conversations, Mr. Musk is obsessive, almost manic, about the stakes of the election and the need for Mr. Trump to win. He praises Mr. Trump’s courage under fire — he endorsed him on the night of the assassination attempt in Butler — and talks about how funny he is. One person who spoke recently to Mr. Musk recalled him saying, without any hint of irony, “I love Trump.”
Mr. Musk’s frenzied engagement reflects his view of this moment in American history. On X, he has warned in dire terms about the effects of progressive policies and censorship. He has claimed, without basis, that Democrats are trying to fill the country with undocumented immigrants who would reward them with permanent power, warning that the 2024 race could be the last free election in America.
It may be impossible to capture the financial value of all the support Mr. Musk is providing to Mr. Trump. This is in part because of his role on X, where he amplifies so much of the former president’s message. Mr. Trump has privately used grand — and unverified — terms to describe what Mr. Musk is donating to the super PAC, telling one associate recently that the figure is $500 million.
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Elon Musk wants himself and his oligarch friends to rule the world. Trump would be a step toward achieving that in his mind.
Yet another thing the average American is apathetic or ignorant about.
Always a good way to start an open discussion...
Our national crisis is beyond the level of your feelings. We are seeing lying from the right at unprecedented levels.
Mike Johnson told Meet The Press that Trump has greater mental acumen than anyone in the history of the United States.
We have an idiocracy going here.
Something you're not interested in in the first place.
Considering the fact that around half the voters in the USA want him to be President, he sure as hell DOES have the mental acumen for being the most successful Pied Piper in the whole history of Presidential elections. And you know what will happen if he IS elected...
Always?
OMG, a billionaire who has aligned himself behind a presidential candidate in hopes of gaining favor should the preferred candidate gain office. How fucking dare he...
All the wrong outrage however, you have nothing against those who support Harris but are aghast at one who supports Trump.
Is Musk a US citizen? Yeah...I could go look that up...
Yes, naturalized.
As you see in 1.2.2, yes he is. But don't you have anything about the intent of my post? Musk is just one of many billionaires who back presidential candidates in this and past races, all in the hopes that their "backed" candidate wins in November and that they can then get favorable treatment from Washington. It's been that way for a very long time. For how long as the oligarchy been running the world?
What?
People have different political opinions?
I am shocked..shocked I tell you!
Musk is uber weird!
(People are wondering-- is he gonna go to Springfield to eat our pets? Dogs and cats?)
These days, in private conversations, Mr. Musk is obsessive, almost manic, about the stakes of the election and the need for Mr. Trump to win. He praises Mr. Trump’s courage under fire — he endorsed him on the night of the assassination attempt in Butler — and talks about how funny he is. One person who spoke recently to Mr. Musk recalled him saying, without any hint of irony, “I love Trump.”
“I love Trump.” and what he can do for me if he becomes 'president' again.
What does Elon Musk want from Pennsylvania ... and America?: Is Musk and his increasingly outrageous efforts to flat-out buy the 2024 election a bigger threat than even Trump?
The writers behind the latest James Bond thriller have really outdone themselves. This time out for the storied 60-plus-year-old spy franchise, the supervillain with a maniacal plot for world domination doesn’t live in an elaborate ice palace carved into Antarctica or on a secret island hideaway somewhere in the South Pacific — but in a tiny two-bedroom prefabricated house in Boca Chica, Texas. Yet, his plot for a global takeover is more diabolical than ever.
After making more than $200 billion by casting himself as a planetary environmental savior, Bond’s evil nemesis uses his vast wealth to take over one of the world’s most popular communication networks and, over several years, warp its once free exchange of ideas into a platform for right-wing disinformation, including rank antisemitism, xenophobia, and increasingly unhinged conspiracy theories — in a world where everyday folks no longer know what to believe.
This is just the prelude for our antagonist throwing his pile of loot and growing influence behind an authoritarian candidate for U.S. president, hoping that by installing him in the White House, he won’t just be the world’s richest man, but also its most powerful.
OK, yes, this was another one of my half-baked jokes. No one would believe that plotline at their local cineplex. That may explain why the shell-shocked American body politic doesn’t seem to grasp that this story is actually playing out in real life, as megabillionaire Elon Musk amps up a brazen attempt to buy the American government in the election just over three weeks away.
Is it hyperbole to say that the Tesla and SpaceX founder is frantically trying to buy the election on behalf of Donald Trump? This week, the Musk-funded America PAC tweeted (after Musk stole the @America handle from another user) photos of his minions right here in Philadelphia handing out $47 in cash to voters, part of a maybe-legal-but-sketchy-anyway scheme to spread pro-Trump dollars around in critical swing states.
And Musk — who came to a rally in little Butler, Pa., last weekend to campaign with Trump with a goofy "Oh, What a Feeling!" Toyota flying leap onto the stage — has said that he all but intends to move here to the Keystone State these next few weeks if he can help Trump nail down this evenly divided state’s 19 make-or-break electoral votes.
Sources close to the America PAC leaked to reporters that Musk — who went to college in Philly at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (just like Trump, a fact that the Ivy League school’s PR team doesn’t play up for some weird reason) — plans to basically camp out here in Pennsylvania between now and Nov. 5. Sure enough, Musk showed up at Heinz Field Sunday night to watch the Steelers-Cowboys game, during which he (reportedly) picked up the phone to tell Gov. Josh Shapiro about his big ideas for investing in Pittsburgh. Musk’s same helpful aides also leaked that the South African-born billionaire is a big fan of both the Steelers and the Eagles.
Really? I mean, what could convince Pennsylvanians of your sincere love for our state more than the fact that you root for two teams whose actual fans pretty much despise each other? Or that after years of investing in low-tax, no-regulations Texas, Elon suddenly discovered — just 30 days before the election — that Pittsburgh is the new Austin? I can’t wait for the future leaks that Elon is equally besotted by Sheetz and Wawa (he has put on a few pounds lately), that he slathers Heinz ketchup on the scrapple he eats every morning for breakfast, and occasionally on a Tastykake butterscotch krimpet, and that his next SpaceX missile will be launched from the 50-yard-line at the Linc after the Birds score a touchdown.
C’mon, Elon. What do you really want from us here in Pennsylvania? Or in the United States of America, which you seem hell-bent on buying?
The potential for Musk’s incredibly toxic mix of unlimited dollars and over-the-top disinformation to blow up the American Experiment is evident in a visit to the same America PAC website that promises voters $47 for referring a friend to sign Musk’s petition for unhindered gun rights and free speech in the manner Musk defines it. There, its "key values" are illustrated with tweets from Musk’s own X/Twitter — some of which are just false, like the claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is out of hurricane money because the money was spent on migrants.
With the election at hand, it’s clear what Musk is doing. But why?
The simplest Occam’s razor answer is that Musk is a huge government contractor — more than $15 billion over the years through SpaceX, on top of federal loan guarantees for Tesla — who wants a supporter in the Oval Office. Since Musk officially endorsed Trump, the candidate has modified his frequent attacks on electric vehicles to tell a rally Monday in Reading that "they’re fantastic for certain groups of people who want them." Musk could be just an old-fashioned influence peddler, but it feels like more than that.
It’s been 39 years since Tears for Fears sang that "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," but the fantasy has never gone away. The widespread notion in Silicon Valley among the people who knew Elon before he went off the deep end is that Musk — who can’t entertain the crazy notion of running for president himself because of his South African birth — believes he can wield influence over Trump and be the actual power behind the throne.
I’m sure that would come as news to Trump. But either way, the fact that America has come to this point — where our kleptocracy has devolved down to this Bond-flavored world-takeover scheme now playing out before our nation’s lonely eyes — is something the public, especially here in Pennsylvania, shouldn’t stand for. Voters here should tell Musk where he can put his $47 and his plot to buy our votes. Send him back to Texas, where he can root for the Cowboys. They deserve each other.
wbunch@inquirer.com
If Musk really wanted to, he could probably BUY the American election. Most of the American billionaires, multi-millionaires and big corporate CEOs would probably chip in and help him do it. After all, isn't America "The Land of Opportunity?"
Kamala Harris is proving you can't buy an election.
merican billionaires, multi-millionaires and big corporate CEOs would probably chip in and help him do it.
They are mainly democrats. Why would they try to elect Trump?
Thank you., Your comment is in keeping with NEVER EVER being in agreement with anything I have ever said, even about Israel.
I agree with many of your opinions about Israel. I doubt I've ever written critical of them.
How could I possibly have known?
Well, you know what Ralph Waldo Emerson said about that!
But for those who don't:
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote : “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
I thought the mention of hobgoblins was a nice touch . . . just in time for Halloween!
Perfect timing.
As Democrats travel to New York to kiss the Soros ring...
What office is he running for?
The same one Musk is.
Which is?
Whoosh
Snap!
Crackle and Pop!
(People are saying is that this site needs more cool sound effects!)
Soros is not in NY, but still living rent free in the heads of the antisemitic MAGA Populists.
Sigh…..The evil old Nazi has turned his empire over to his son Alex and he definitely lives in New York.
Yes, just like musk lives rent free in the head of bigoted progressives
The Soros ring?