Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with former President Donald Trump on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida, along with unnamed wealthy Republican donors, the New York Times reported, citing three people briefed on the meeting.
Trump is courting donors as he gears up for a general election campaign against President Joe Biden. It’s not yet clear whether Musk will financially back or endorse Trump and his 2024 campaign.
Musk and a representative for Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Private jets belonging to Trump and Musk were spotted landing within less than an hour of one another at a Palm Beach airport on March 2. The jets’ whereabouts were first reported online by the service known as “Elon Jet,” which uses publicly available data to track more than 125 jets belonging to politicians, celebrities and executives.
In September 2023, Musk visited the White House to discuss artificial intelligence technology, but he didn’t meet with Biden at that time.
Musk, who owns X and runs defense contractor SpaceX in addition to Tesla, didn’t endorse Trump in his 2016 or 2020 campaigns.
The two have had their share of clashes.
In June 2017, Musk abandoned advisory councils of then-President Trump, citing his withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris climate accords.
In 2022, Trump called Musk a “bull—- artist,” claiming that the Tesla CEO said he voted for Trump in private conversations between them. Musk publicly denied that claim and said the first time he voted for a Republican was Mayra Flores in a special election in Texas that year.
Musk has publicly voiced criticisms of Trump and Biden.
“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” Musk wrote in a tweet in July 2022. “Dems should also call off the attack — don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency.”
Trump said in a post on Truth Social at that time that Musk came to the White House for help “on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere.”
Since Musk acquired Twitter and rebranded it as X, he’s become more vocal about his political ideology. He’s also made more appearances alongside right-wing political leaders around the world.
In May 2022, Musk accused the Biden administration of doing “everything it can to sideline” and ignore Tesla, despite its dominance in the electric vehicle industry.
In November 2022, after Musk bought Twitter with the assistance of funding from Saudi Arabia, President Biden was asked whether Musk was a potential threat to national security. Biden said his “cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at.”
Last year, Musk said he was “leaning” toward voting for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But DeSantis suspended his campaign in January, endorsing Trump just before the New Hampshire primary.
At the DealBook Summit in November, Musk said, “I would not vote for Biden.”
“I’m not saying I’d vote for Trump,” he said. He also characterized Nikki Haley, who’s running against Trump in the Republican primary, as a “pro-censorship” candidate.
On Tuesday, Musk posted on X to bash the Biden administration’s handling of immigration in the U.S. He simultaneously voiced support for Republican candidates including Marty O’Donnell, a composer of music for popular video games, who’s running as a Republican for Congress in Nevada, and for Jeremy Sylestine, a district attorney candidate in Austin, Texas.
