Billionaire tech executive Elon Musk took a dire look at the upcoming presidential election during an appearance with Donald Trumpcalling the Republican presidential candidate the only candidate “to preserve democracy in America.”
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla who also bought X, Musk joined Trump on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the site where the former president survived an assassination attempt in July. Musk said “this will be the last election” if Trump doesn’t win. Wearing a cap with the Trump campaign’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, Musk appeared to acknowledge the disturbing nature of his remarks.
“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m Dark MAGA,” he said.
It was the first time Musk joined one of Trump’s rallies and demonstrated their growing alliance in the final stretch of the presidential election. Musk created a super political action committee to support the Republican candidate and spent a lot of money to get out the vote. Trump said he would tap Musk to lead a government commission on efficiency if he regains the White House.
Trump joined Musk in August to a rare public conversation on X, a friendly conversation that lasted more than two hours. In it, the former president focused largely on the July assassination attempt, illegal immigration and his plans to reduce government regulations.
In front of a large crowd on Saturday, Musk sought to portray Trump as a champion of free speech, arguing that Democrats want to “take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms, they want to take away your withdraw the right to bear arms. vote, effectively. Musk then criticized California’s efforts to ban voter ID requirements.
The event took place at the same property where a gunman’s bullets grazed Trump’s right ear and killed a Trump supporter, Corey Comperatore. The shooting left several others injured.
Several members of Comperatore’s family, as well as other participants and first responders from the July rally, returned to the scene Saturday. His running mate, the Republican senator from Ohio, was also present alongside the former president. J.D. Vanceson Eric Trumpdaughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trumpalongside Pennsylvania legislators and sheriffs.
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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be contacted at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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The story has been corrected to reflect that Elon Musk said Democrats “want to take away your right to vote, effectively,” not “fight to vote, effectively.”