Former President Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican National Committee want to convince Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will speak at the GOP convention in July, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Republican leaders believe that giving Musk a speaking slot at the convention could lead some of his fans to bolster the party’s traditionally lagging support among young adult voters on Election Day, a source familiar with that belief said.
Trump is expected to be confirmed as the Republican presidential nominee at the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, setting up a rematch of his 2020 contest against President Joe Biden in this November’s election.
Musk’s potential speaking role was announced after he reportedly met with Trump and a group of wealthy Republican donors in Palm Beach, Florida, last weekend. It’s not clear whether Trump or his allies mentioned this idea to Musk.
That session came days before the former president’s landslide victory in the Super Tuesday primary, which resulted in his last major challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, dropping out of the nominating contest.
People who spoke to CNBC for this story were granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
If Musk, who also owns the social media site
Peter Thiel, Musk’s longtime backer and co-founder of PayPal, had a similar purpose when he spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, where Trump was first nominated for president.
A source familiar with the matter noted that RNC leadership’s interest in having Musk speak at the convention had already been discussed with Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman who resigned at the committee’s meeting in Houston on Friday.
This source said new RNC chair Michael Whatley will likely be in favor of inviting Musk to speak, as will new RNC co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law.
Representatives for Trump and the RNC did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
It remains to be seen whether the RNC will invite Musk or whether he would like to attend the meeting.
Musk, who reportedly has a net worth of nearly $200 billion, said this week that he has no plans to donate money to the Trump or Biden campaigns.
But a person familiar with last weekend’s meeting in Florida said some of Trump’s advisers hope Musk will begin supporting the Republican candidate.
Musk has not publicly ruled out donating money to a pro-Trump political action committee or a nonprofit that supports the former president’s policies.
Musk had previously expressed support for the Republican presidential candidacy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who suspended his campaign in January after dismal primary results against Trump.
Musk also hosted a Twitter Spaces event last year for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking the White House as an independent candidate.
Musk did not endorse Trump in the Republican’s two previous campaigns, 2016 and 2020.
And the two have clashed in the past.
In June 2017, Musk left a Trump advisory council at the White House, citing the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
In July 2022, Trump criticized the mega-billionaire for saying he had never voted for a Republican before he cast a vote for a GOP candidate in Texas for a special House election earlier that year.
“He said the other day, ‘Oh, I’ve never voted for a Republican,'” Trump said at that rally. “He told me he voted for me, so he’s another Bulls—artist.”
Musk tweeted within days: “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset. Democrats should call off the attack too – don’t make it seem like Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the presidency.”
While Musk continues to describe himself as a “moderate,” his public political statements have trended to the right for years.
And his social and political comments in articles
In early 2022, Musk said he would vote for Republicans instead of Democrats in this year’s midterm congressional elections.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, as voters across the United States cast their ballots in the presidential primaries, Musk baselessly accused Biden of “treason” while criticizing his handling of immigration in the United States.
When he took control of
That insurrection disrupted for hours a joint session of Congress meeting to certify Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.
Trump, who then founded his own social media company Truth Social, had previously stated that he would not return to X even if Musk lifted the ban.
Trump made an exception to that promise last summer when he released his prison mugshot taken after he was indicted in the state of Georgia over his attempt to overturn his loss to Biden in that state’s 2020 presidential election .
This post links to Trump’s campaign website, where people can donate to his re-election efforts and a political action committee that is paying his mounting legal fees
Thiel, a former Facebook board member, told The Atlantic last fall that he had no plans to financially support Republican candidates, including Trump.
Thiel also said in that interview that Trump’s presidential administration, which lasted from January 2017 to January 2021, was “crazier” and “more dangerous than I thought.”
“They couldn’t make the most basic parts of the government function,” Thiel told the media outlet. “So that was – I think that part was maybe even worse than my low expectations.”
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2024-03-08 22:03:16
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