After being introduced by Donald Trump as someone who “defended freedom of speech,” Elon Musk took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, jump up and down to a warm welcome from the crowd when he wore one Occupy Mars T-shirt and an all-black Make America Great Again hat.
“As you can see,” Musk adjusted his hat as he began his speech, “I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA.”
Trump’s return context exactly twelve weeks later first failed assassination attempt about his life, and the month until Election day“featured prayers, opera, skydivers and an artist who did a live painting of Corey Comperatore, the Trump supporter killed in the shocking July 13 attack,” per report from Axios. Pennsylvania remains one of—otherwise—the states that matter most to Trump and the Vice President Kamala Harris on the way to 270.
“America is now the home of the brave, and there is no truer test than courage under fire,” said Musk, who officially confirmed Trump followed the gunman who nearly killed him, gesturing to the former president.
So far, Musk has spent a lot of money and effort to help put Trump in the White House, even co-founding a super political action committee to do it. A new investigation published this week by Wall Street Journal establish that, over the past few years, “The Tesla CEO has quietly given tens of millions of dollars to groups with ties to Trump aides Stephen Miller and supporters of the Florida Governor. Ron DeSantisPresident’s bid.” the magazine added that these contributions “make him one of the largest donors to conservative causes, which combined with his large social media following makes him one of the most influential person in American politics.”
the billionaireHis speech largely focused on getting people to register to vote and choose Trump—and he did that by repeating some of the same alarmist language the former president has used . “This is a must-win situation. Must win. So I have a request for all the viewers, everyone watching this video, everyone streaming. There’s a request, it’s very important: Register to vote, okay, and invite everyone you know and everyone you don’t know,” Musk said, adding, “Like, message everyone right now. CURRENTLY. And then make sure they actually vote. Otherwise, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction. There’s nothing more important. There is nothing more important.”
Trump does repeatedly made claims that if Christian Americans vote for him this time, they will never have to vote again.
“Christians, get out and vote, just this once,” said Republican presidential candidate speak a crowd at the Believers Summit in July’s landmark action. “You won’t have to do that anymore. Four more years, you know? It will be fixed, it will be all right, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
However, as Musk stated in Butler, he argued that electing Trump was the only way to preserve democracy. “You have to have freedom of speech to have democracy, that’s why it’s the First Amendment. And the Second Amendment is there to make sure that we have the First Amendment,” he said with a laugh. “President Trump must win to protect the constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America.”
Alike many other things current Trump fansTheir relationship wasn’t always so rosy. Trump had previously propose that Musk is cozying up to the Joe Biden administration “because of all the government subsidies he gets and all the permits he needs.” And in July 2022, Trump posted on Truth Social about Musk asking for his favors while in office.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all his subsidized projects, whether it was an electric car that didn’t run long enough, a driverless car that crashed, or a rocket ship that went to nothing, if there are no worthless subsidies, and tell me what a huge Trump fan and Republican he is,” Trump began, adding, “I can tell , ‘kneel down and beg’, and he will do it….”
