Elon Musk Reveals He Won't Donate to 'Either Candidate' Following Secret Trump Meeting
March 6 2024, Published 6:00 p.m. ET
Elon Musk announced that he will not donate to President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump after a secret meeting fueled speculation that the tech billionaire could bankroll Trump's cash-strapped campaign, RadarOnline.com has learned.
"Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President," Musk wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
Musk's clarification comes a day after the New York Times reported that the Tesla CEO met with Trump and a small group of wealthy Republican donors in Palm Beach on Sunday.
While President Biden's 2024 re-election campaign continues to successfully raise tens of millions of dollars, Trump is desperately seeking a cash infusion after spending $50 million in legal fees and facing fines of over $454 million due to court judgments in New York that have left his campaign's war chest all but depleted.
Although Musk has said he will not donate directly to the Trump or Biden campaigns, he did not explicitly rule out donating to a political action committee or fund benefiting one of the candidates – which could free him from the legal limits governing direct contributions.
Musk, one of the world's richest men with an estimated net worth of nearly $200 billion, has generally refrained from large campaign donations in the past but become more politically vocal in recent years, seemingly shifting to the right of the political spectrum.
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Since acquiring Twitter and rebranding it as X, Musk has reinstated Trump's account and frequently uses his sizable social media platform to speak out against President Biden and what he has deemed the "woke mind virus."
"In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican," he tweeted in 2022.
The SpaceX founder, who has previously said that he voted for Biden in 2020, has become openly critical of the Biden administration – especially its immigration policies, which he has referred to as "treason."
Last month, Musk controversially accused Biden of deliberately allowing illegal immigration into the United States in order to create a "one-party state" with a Democratic majority.
"This administration is both importing voters and creating a national security threat from unvetted illegal immigrants," he added in a tweet on Tuesday. "It is highly probable that the groundwork is being laid for something far worse than 9/11. Just a matter of time."
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