In the United States, the Republicans’ practically certain presidential candidate Donald Trump struggles with money worries, which is why she met one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk’sin Florida last Sunday.
The newspaper tells about it New York Times (NYT) based on three sources with knowledge of the meeting. In addition to Trump and Musk, the meeting was attended by a few wealthy individuals who donate money to Republicans.
Trump and his campaign team are looking for new donors as the incumbent president struggles Joe Biden with accelerates as the November elections approach.
Trump hopes to include Musk as one of his donors, who in recent years has moved closer to the Republicans in terms of his political views.
According to NYT’s source, Trump has praised Musk to his close circle and hopes to be able to negotiate with Musk privately again in the near future.
Musk’s criticism of Biden has grown
Musk quickly denied any plans to donate money to Trump’s campaign.
– I will not donate money to either of the US presidential candidates, Musk wrote message service in X today wednesday.
However, Musk did not specify whether he could donate money to fundraising groups supporting the candidates.
Musk has not donated money to Trump’s previous presidential campaigns and has said he voted for the Democratic nominee in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Musk has donated small amounts of money relative to his fortune in the past to both Democratic and Republican politicians.
In the past two years, however, Musk has turned into a harsh critic of the Democratic Party.
In the 2022 midterm elections Musk urged followers to vote for Republican candidates, and according to sources who spoke to the NYT, Musk now makes it very important that Biden lose this year’s election.
Still, Musk has not officially turned into a Trump supporter, and the relationship between the two men is not without complications.
In his biography published last year Musk said, that Trump is a “fraudster” and “a little crazy”. Trump is on his side criticized Musk as a “shit talker”.
Last year, Musk spoke favorably of the governor of Florida From Ron DeSantis, who opened his campaign for the Republican primary in a joint call with Musk. However, Musk did not donate money to DeSantis’ campaign.
Musk is worried about the southern border of the USA
Musk has been particularly vocal in criticizing the border policy of the Biden administration on the US-Mexico border. According to Musk, immigrants are coming across the border into the country at an uncontrollable pace.
Trump, who virtually secured the position of the Republican presidential candidate yesterday on Super Tuesday, said in his victory speech that there is an “invasion” on the southern border of the United States. Trump has promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants if he returns to power for a second term as president.
According to a source in Musk’s inner circle who spoke to NYT, Trump’s strict border policy is an important reason why Musk is considering supporting Trump.
– America will collapse if it tries to absorb the whole world, Musk wrote in X yesterday tuesday.
Musk wrote yesterday also that the border policy of the Biden administration has been worthy of “treason”.
Musk has been diligently spreading the conspiracy theory at X that Democrats would allow immigrants across the southern border to enter the country because they would vote more for Democrats.
However, only US citizens have the right to vote in presidential elections. In addition in recent opinion polls the support of Latino voters is split almost equally between Biden and Trump.
Trump’s campaign needs money
At the end of January, Biden’s campaign had more than 50 million euros, while Trump’s campaign had less than 30 million euros.
More and more money is coming in as the election year progresses. The presidential campaigns spend about 2.5 billion euros on advertising alone during this election campaign, it is estimated An Adimpact company.
Trump’s campaign money is also eaten up by his legal expenses. Fundraising groups supporting Trump already spent last year around 45 million euros For Trump’s legal costs. This year, legal costs will increase significantly if the criminal trials awaiting Trump get started.
The net worth of Elon Musk, who is the CEO of the car company Tesla and the space company Space X, is about 180 billion euros, so even a small part of his wealth as a donation to Trump would fundamentally change the settings of fundraising for election campaigns.