Are former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk patching things up? The two met, along with a few wealthy Republican donors, in Palm Beach, Florida, over the weekend, according to a New York Times report based on three sources briefed on the meeting. (NBC News has not confirmed the meeting, and neither Trump nor Musk responded to the Times' request for comment.) That reported meet-up has raised buzz about a rekindling of the Trump-Musk rapport, as Trump scrambles for cash while he hemorrhages money for legal costs and prepares to shell out hundreds of millions in legal penalties.
In response to the buzz from the report, Musk said on his site X Wednesday that he is “not donating money to either candidate for US President.” That statement, however, leaves room for him to help Trump out with less direct contributions. And it’s a plausible scenario. Trump and Musk have had their differences in the past, but in recent years their interests have converged. That’s enough reason to keep an eye on their relationship.
Circumstances have changed for both men — and created what may be a greater confluence of interests.
When Trump was president, he and Musk butted heads on multiple occasions. Musk dropped out of Trump’s White House business councils after Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, and Musk tweeted condemnation of Trump’s move. In 2022, Musk said that Trump had become too old for the presidency and should “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.” Trump responded by calling Musk a “bull---- artist” and claimed that when he was president Musk was a fawning businessman desperate for government subsidies. “I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” Trump said on Truth Social at the time.
But circumstances have changed for both men — and created what may be a greater confluence of interests. In particular, Trump’s financial challenges have grown dire. Biden is leading him in the fundraising race, in no small part because an extraordinary proportion of donations to Trump are going toward his many legal battles. Trump is also now personally on the hook for hundreds of millions for dollars for his New York state business fraud case, and must pay over $80 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her. While Trump once boasted — falsely — that his wealth insulated him from special interests and donors, he’s now hobnobbing with ultra-wealthy mega-donors from a place of desperation.
Musk, as one of the richest men in the world, could help Trump out with his problems. And there’s reason to think it could be a temptation for him. Musk used to be, like many businessmen, broadly nonpartisan and open to working with both parties — particularly because his businesses Tesla and SpaceX have often relied on government subsidies and contracts. But in recent years Musk has swung hard to the right. He has aligned himself with the MAGA ethos, said he voted for his first Republican in Congress, and evolved into a right-wing culture warrior on X, after he purchased it in 2022. One of Musk’s first high-profile moves as he changed the platform’s policies was to reinstate Trump’s account. Musk also expressed interest in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the run-up to the presidential primaries, has fiercely criticized Biden’s policies and said he won’t vote for Biden. He may also just want to hedge his bets by rebuilding trust with a man who could be president again and whose governance style is frequently shaped by personal grudges.
Musk also has his own vulnerabilities that might make him inclined to cozy up with Trump. Musk’s purchase of X has been disastrous — the company has not only lost a huge amount of its value but is also the source of a huge amount of debt. Tesla’s market valuation has fallen almost 60% from its peak, and labor victories in the auto industry have union organizers eyeing Tesla’s factories. Musk, a staunch union-buster, surely knows that the legal environment for labor will be a lot more hostile under a Trump administration. He was also infuriated at Biden when Biden’s FCC declined to reinstate Space X’s colossal federal subsidies.
Even if Musk doesn’t want to contribute to Trump directly, he still has the capacity to anonymously funnel gigantic sums of cash into pro-Trump PACs. That would still be a game changer in the 2024 race. Musk could also leverage X itself, or his influence on the platform, to support Trump.
Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it will happen; Musk has never been a major political donor, and he may stay on that course. But he’s also become a more overtly political player in recent years. And there’s no shortage of reasons to think that both Trump and Musk would want to work together. Which isn't comforting. Their combined resources as powerful reactionary figures shouldn't be underestimated.
