Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on March 6 that he won’t donate any money to candidates in the 2024 presidential election, including former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden, following reports that Mr. Musk has visited President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and held discussions there.
Mr. Musk met with the former president last weekend along with other Republican donors, although few details were provided, according to reports that cited people who weren’t identified. The reports claimed that the former president was seeking donations because of low cash reserves.
He didn’t mention either candidate by name, and he also didn’t comment on reports that he met with President Trump. The former president also hasn’t publicly commented on the matter.
Notably, Mr. Musk hasn’t made many political donations to candidates over the years, according to reports. He did contribute to a handful of 2018 midterm candidates, both Republican and Democrat.
He has long sought to cast himself as politically independent and has reportedly split donations fairly evenly between Democrats and Republicans over the years. Reports have said that he donated to President George W. Bush in 2004 and to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2007. He also donated to President Barack Obama’s campaign years later.
However, the SpaceX owner could donate to President Trump or another candidate through different avenues, including providing funds to a political action committee that backs either candidate.
With a net worth that Forbes magazine has put at about $200 billion, Mr. Musk has the resources to almost single-handedly offset the huge financial advantage that President Biden and his supporters are otherwise expected to wield in the 2024 general election campaign.
Based on posts he’s made on X, Mr. Musk in recent months has aligned himself with Republican politicians on some key issues, including censorship and illegal immigration. He has said he would back Republican Party candidates during the 2024 election. In 2022, he urged voters to cast their ballots for GOP candidates, while saying that he voted for President Biden in 2020.
Earlier this year, Mr. Musk wrote on X that he believes President Biden and the Democrats are using illegal immigrants to cast ballots in favor of Democratic candidates in the next election. He has also targeted left-wing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training and policies, labeling them as extremist and writing, “DEI must DIE.”
After taking over Twitter in 2022, Mr. Musk reinstated the accounts of several users, including that of President Trump, which the platform had suspended in January 2021. However, the former president hasn’t made any posts on the platform since, except when his mugshot was taken last year in Fulton County, Georgia, where he faced charges related to several election-related violations.
President Trump won 14 of 15 states during the Super Tuesday election contest, while his nearest rival Nikki Haley’s only victory was in Vermont. President Biden secured victories in every single state. It effectively means that there will be a Trump-Biden rematch in 2024.
Aside from the campaign, the former president is fighting against four separate criminal cases in Georgia, New York, Florida, and Washington. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, saying he’s the target of political persecution at the hands of Democrats.
Other than the criminal charges, he has faced multiple civil cases in New York. Last month, a judge in New York City determined that The Trump Organization willingly defrauded investors and banks and ruled that he must pay a $355 million fine; the former president continues to deny the charges and has appealed.
Because the former president is a good fundraiser, it’s unlikely his campaign will run out of cash, a legal scholar noted.
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York, who specializes in campaign finance regulation, told The Associated Press in February that “he seems to be able to raise a lot of money, so I wouldn’t really worry about the long-term impact on his campaign.”
