Donald Trump is considering hiring billionaire Elon Musk as a political advisor if the Republican presidential candidate takes back the White House in the November election, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the conversations.
Musk, who runs social media platform X as well as SpaceX and Tesla TSLA.O, has spoken to The Wall Street Journal about how he could influence economic and border security policies.
The newspaper also said Musk informed Trump about his ongoing influence campaign aimed at convincing powerful American business leaders not to support Democratic President Joe Biden, who defeated him in the 2020 election and is seeking a second term.
Those talks, which included billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, also included discussions about funding a “data-driven project to prevent voter fraud,” the outlet said, adding that no further details were known.
Representatives for Trump and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Representatives from Biden’s campaign also did not immediately respond.
Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes told The Wall Street Journal that only the Republican candidate will decide “what role an individual plays in his presidency.” The newspaper detailed that Musk did not respond to his requests for comment.
In March, after a meeting with Trump in Florida, Musk – one of the richest people in the world – said he would not donate money to him or to Biden. Instead, he intends to “use his influence … to help defeat Biden by galvanizing the support of influential allies,” the newspaper said, citing a person familiar with his ideas.
In recent years, Musk has moved closer to the Republican Party. The billionaire has said, without evidence, that Biden is intentionally allowing migrants to cross the US-Mexico border, and has endorsed anti-Semitic comments on X, although he has denied being so.
Although he has publicly criticized Biden’s policies on immigration, electric vehicles and tariffs, Musk has not announced any formal endorsement of anyone in the November race and Trump has said he did not know if he had the billionaire’s support.
Musk’s views have hurt his standing among some consumers, according to a CivicScience survey shown exclusively to Reuters.
Trump, a prolific Twitter user, now X, before he was banned from the social network after the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitollaunched its rival platform Truth Social, owned by Trump Media and Technology Group Corp DJT.O.
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