The News
Elon Musk said he will endorse Donald Trump’s run for president. Calling Trump “tough,” Musk said he would “fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” and is reportedly lending his financial backing to the Republican candidate.
CEOs have been rallying behind Trump in recent months, and Saturday’s assassination attempt on the former president has seemingly galvanized some of the US’ ultra wealthy behind him: David Sacks, a venture capitalist, tweeted this weekend that “there’s not a braver man in America than Donald Trump,” and on Monday expressed his support for Trump’s decision to name JD Vance as his running mate.
SIGNALS
Musk plans to donate $45 million per month to Trump super PAC
Sources close to the Tesla and X chief executive told The Wall Street Journal that Musk plans to donate $45 million monthly to America PAC, a pro-Trump political-action committee. The donations would mark some of the highest spending on a political candidate in the 2024 election, the Journal noted — the largest known contribution so far was a $50 million pledge by Tim Mellon, a relative of the banker Thomas Mellon, to a separate pro-Trump super PAC.
Musk one of several billionaires throwing support behind GOP
Multiple US billionaires have pledged their support to the Republican candidate so far, with Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman voicing support for the Trump campaign because of concerns of a broader “rise of antisemitism,” Forbes reported last month. Meanwhile, Citadel’s Ken Griffin has said he would wait to see who Trump chose as his running mate before donating, and Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, is expected to endorse Trump’s second run. But Trump’s vice presidential pick has alarmed some CEOs: Vance is critical of Wall Street, and business leaders are concerned that he will be hostile towards their operations, Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported Monday.
Musk has veered towards MAGA policies and criticism of the media
On X, the social media platform that he purchased in late 2022, Musk posted repeatedly about the attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday, blaming the Secret Service and “diversity hires” for failing to prevent the attack. Musk also pointed to conflicting news headlines as evidence that the media were downplaying the incident — and has seemingly “been sucked into a right-wing infosphere,” The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis wrote. Musk “has turned X into a machine for validating his prejudices. And that, unfortunately, is making the rest of us dumber too.”