Tesla CEO Elon Musk makes his first appearance at a Trump rally

Author: MEG KINNARD

Billionaire technology executive Elon Musk made a sharp assessment of the upcoming presidential election during his Saturday appearance with Donald Trump, calling the Republican presidential candidate the only candidate who will “preserve democracy in America.”

The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, which also bought X, Musk joined Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president survived an assassination attempt in July. He warned that “this will be the last election” if Trump doesn’t win, and wearing a black-on-black cap with Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” appeared to confirm the evil nature of his remarks.

“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA – I’m Dark MAGA,” he said.

The appearance was Musk’s first appearance at one of Trump’s signature rallies and represented a growing alliance between the two men in the final phase of a competitive presidential election. Musk has formed a super PAC backing the GOP candidate, who has been spending heavily on get-out-the-vote efforts in the final months of the campaign. Trump announced that if he regains the White House, he will appoint Musk to head the government efficiency commission.

Trump joined Musk in August for a rare public conversation on Platform X – an unusually friendly chat that lasted more than two hours. The former president largely focused on the July coup attempt, illegal immigration and plans to cut government regulations.

Before a huge crowd on Saturday, Musk sought to portray Trump as a champion of free speech, arguing that Democrats want to “take away your free speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms, they want to take away your fight to vote effectively.” Musk then criticized California’s efforts to ban voter ID requirements.

Saturday’s rally was held at the same mansion where a gunman’s bullets grazed Trump’s right ear and killed his supporter, Corey Comperatore. Many other people were injured as a result of the shooting.

Several members of the Comperatore family, as well as other participants and rescuers from the July rally, returned to the site on Saturday. The former president was also joined by his running mate, Republican senator from Ohio, JD Vance, son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump, as well as lawmakers and sheriffs from Pennsylvania.

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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

Originally published: October 5, 2024 at 16:39