Former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk met over the weekend in Florida, according to a new report, a gathering that came as Trump gears up for the 2024 general election facing growing financial and legal peril.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources briefed on the meeting, reports that Trump and Musk met Sunday in Palm Beach with other wealthy GOP contributors. It remains unclear what they discussed or if Musk made, or will make, any financial commitments.
But if Musk were to plow any of his astronomical wealth into aiding Trump’s campaign to win back the White House against President Joe Biden, it could be an important boost to Trump’s political prospects.
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Trump himself faces more than half-a-billion dollars in penalties stemming from the civil fraud case against his company in New York and a pair of lawsuits that ended with him being found liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. That could wipe out the former president’s available cash supply and force him to sell some of his properties. And the web of political groups that support Trump are increasingly strained by legal bills associated with the four different criminal indictments he’s facing.
Musk, meanwhile, is one of the richest people in the world. While he lost the top spot to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this week in one ranking amid a punishing stretch for Tesla stock, he is still worth close to $200 billion. And his political priorities have increasingly come into alignment with those of Trump and his supporters in recent years, especially when it comes to restricting immigration. In 2022, he advised his social media followers to support Republicans in the midterm elections.