On Saturday, October 5, former president Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvaniafor a protest less than three months after the protest assassination plot about his life in the same location. This time Trump appeared on stage with billionaire and X owner Elon Musk.
Trump supporters love it.
The day before the campaign event, Musk posted on X that he would attend. The excitement about his presence was palpable: On the road leading to the rally site, an electronic billboard flashed an image of Musk’s face and a rocket ship with the words “We Trust on Musk!” On a side street, where hundreds of attendees were parked, a Tesla electric truck had two Trump flags flying on the back.
When Musk took the stage, he was greeted with cheers. Thousands of people took out their phones to film him. Musk urged Trump supporters to register to vote, saying: “Invite everyone you know and everyone you don’t know. Get them registered to vote.”
“If they don’t, this will be the last election,” he added ominously. “That’s my guess.”
And Trump supporters in Butler who spoke to WIRED said that, although they had planned to attend the rally despite Musk’s presence, they were glad to have him in the group. MAGA. Some even came from out of town to attend the event.
“It definitely sweetened the deal,” said Sherry O’Donnell, a Trump supporter who attended the rally in Butler.
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“I’m excited because I really like Elon Musk and we love what he’s doing with the space program,” Brian Yanoviak, who drove from eastern Pennsylvania to attend the rally, told WIRED. ”. Yanoviak is a delegate to the Republican National Convention. “He’s very smart, very creative. He understands what is happening to the United States. And he truly cares about the future of our country. A lot like Trump, a lot like Tucker Carlson, a lot like RFK Jr.… It really is a movement, and it is a movement to make America great again, because if we don’t, we will lose our republic. your peace.”
Musk’s appearance at the rally is part of a larger get-out-the-vote effort by the billionaire and owner of Republican candidates across the country, spending millions. Musk also used his personal X account to vote, posting voter registration links in swing states to his 200 million followers.
Many attendees at the WIRED rally said that Musk owning X is a benefit.
Rob Gray, who also attended Butler’s rally, said he mostly posts on Facebook but still keeps up with news about X. “They say, ‘Oh, Trump is a threat to democracy. ‘ What greater threat to democracy is there than widespread censorship across all social media?” Gray said. “I’m really grateful that he bought Twitter, turned it into X, and now people can actually talk to each other freely.”
