Donald Trump and Elon Musk have reportedly been in contact for months about possibly placing the Tesla CEO in an advisory role if Trump wins re-election this fall.
The Wall Street Journal spoke with multiple sources who corroborated the conversations between the SpaceX founder and former president, saying Musk now calls Trump directly from his cell phone several times a month.
Although the talks are preliminary — and sources caution they could fall through — Trump has expressed interest in finding a way to make Musk more involved with policy, possibly involving border security or the economy, two issues Musk has spoken on publicly. In turn, Musk would aid Trump’s re-election effort, not only by contributing to the Trump war chest, but by leveraging power and influence with other wealthy donors, though he has stopped short of committing to a public endorsement.
The two first met up this year at a donor breakfast in early March hosted at Montsorrel, the Palm Beach, Florida, residence of fellow billionaire Nelson Peltz. The New York Times was the first to report on the meeting, noting that Trump was seeking a cash infusion.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the topic of Musk becoming a Trump adviser came up during the event, with one source likening it to former Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter’s advisory role within the Dept. of Veterans Affairs during the Trump administration.
Following the Times’ report on the meet-up in March, Musk posted he was not donating to Trump or Biden. “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President,” he wrote on X.
The following month, Musk hosted a dinner in Los Angeles with several prominent right-wing figures, including Peltz, Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s former treasury secretary. The dinner involved strategizing ways to stealthily fund the Trump campaign and convince other wealthy individuals to do the same, according to the report.
Among the other topics that have been discussed by Trump and Musk are the U.S. Space Force, which was created during Trump’s first term in office, as well as Musk’s tech companies, the electric-vehicle industry — which Trump has criticized at his rallies — and immigration.
Trump has not publicly commented on the contact he has had with Musk.
“President Trump will be the only voice of what role an individual plays in his presidency,” Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes told The Wall Street Journal. Elon Musk did not respond to their request for comment.
The conversations mark a turning point in the relationship of the two power players. Shortly after closing his acquisition of Twitter (now X) in 2022, Musk made public fanfare over reactivating Trump’s account, which had been suspended after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump ignored the gesture and continued to post on his own social media platform, Truth Social. As Musk’s political leanings have gone further to the right, driven by a rejection of what he has called the “woke mind virus” ideology, it’s not surprising that he’s been willing to sit down with Trump.
