Republican candidate Donald Trump claimed victory in the 2024 US presidential election after Fox News projected that he had defeated his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. Hours before his speech, Tesla founder Elon Musk, one of the staunchest supporters of the former President, declared that the people of America had given a clear mandate in favour of the real estate mogul and that the “future” would be “fantastic”.
Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world, has emerged as the biggest supporter of Donald Trump in the US election. He has been sharing regular X posts advocating why the United States must choose Trump as their next president.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s close relationship made headlines in 2022 after the latter bought Twitter and changed its name to X.
One of the first moves Musk made was to restore Donald Trump’s banned X account. He ran a poll on X. “The people have spoken,” Musk said in 2022, claiming 51.8% of more than 15 million X users wanted the ban lifted.
Donald Trump’s X handle had been banned after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC. The former management decided that his posts about the incident glorified violence.
In the run-up to the US presidential election, Elon Musk openly supported Donald Trump’s candidature in podcasts, interviews and social media posts.
Musk donated USD 75 million to Trump’s Political Action Committee to pave his return to the White House. He even hosted an X-Space with the former President and appeared at some of his campaign rallies.
The Tesla CEO even expressed his willingness to serve after Trump hinted that he would consider Elon Musk for a cabinet role or advisory post if he won.
Elon Musk confirmed that he would spend election night at Trump’s Florida estate.
Musk campaigned alongside him and funded his ground game in swing states.
“I can’t think of anyone who has spent as much time with as big of a mic as Elon Musk, who has spent time talking about voter fraud,” said Justin Grimmer, a political science professor at Stanford University and an expert with the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.
Musk was also accused of posting false or misleading claims about the US election. A Reuters report said that Musk’s posts, mostly in favour of Donald Trump and his policies, amassed billions of views on X.
With inputs from Reuters, Bloomberg, ANI
