Former President Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican National Committee want to persuade Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will speak at the GOP convention in July, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Republican leaders believe that giving Musk a speaking slot at the convention could lead some of his fans to boost what has historically been the party’s support among young adult voters on Election Day, a source familiar with the matter said. this belief.
Trump is expected to be confirmed at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin event as the Republican presidential candidate, setting up a rematch of his 2020 contest against President Joe Biden in this November’s election.
Musk’s potential speaker role was revealed after he reportedly met with Trump and a group of wealthy Republican donors last weekend in Palm Beach, Florida. It’s unclear whether Trump or his allies raised the idea with Musk.
That meeting came days before the former president’s landslide victories in the Super Tuesday primaries, which led his last major challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, to withdraw from the nominating contest.
People who spoke to CNBC for this story were granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
If Musk, who also owns the social media site X, were to appear at the convention, it would be an implicit, and perhaps explicit, endorsement of Trump’s candidacy.
Peter Thiel, who is Musk’s longtime financial supporter and co-founder of PayPal, served a similar purpose when he spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, which first nominated Trump for president.
One of the sources familiar with the matter noted that RNC leadership’s interest in having Musk speak at the convention had already been discussed with Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman who resigned Friday at the committee meeting in Houston.
That source said new RNC chair Michael Whatley will likely be in favor of inviting Musk to speak, as will new RNC co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law.
Representatives for Trump and the RNC did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
It remains to be seen whether the RNC will invite Musk or whether he will want to attend the convention.
Musk, who has a reported net worth of nearly $200 billion, said this week that he does not intend to donate money to either Trump’s or Biden’s campaigns.
But a person familiar with last weekend’s meeting in Florida said some Trump advisers hope Musk will start supporting the Republican nominee.
Musk has not publicly ruled out donating money to a pro-Trump political action committee or a nonprofit that supports the former president’s policies.
Musk had previously expressed support for the Republican presidential candidacy of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who suspended his campaign in January after disappointing primary results against Trump.
Musk also hosted an event last year on Twitter Spaces for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking the White House as an independent candidate.
Musk did not endorse Trump in the previous two Republican campaigns, in 2016 and 2020.
And the two have clashed in the past.
In June 2017, Musk left Trump’s White House advisory council, citing the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
In July 2022, Trump criticized the mega-billionaire for saying he had never voted for a Republican before voting earlier that year for a GOP candidate in Texas for a special House election.
“The other day he said, ‘Oh, I’ve never voted for a Republican,’” Trump said at that rally. “He told me that he voted for me, so he’s another bull artist.”
Musk within days tweeted: “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset. Democrats should call off the attack too – don’t make Trump the only way to survive”. is to win back the presidency.”
While Musk has continued to describe himself as a “moderate,” his public political comments have been moving rightward for years.
And his social and political comments in posts on X have become more bombastic since late 2022, when he led a leveraged buyout of the social media company, then known as Twitter.
In early 2022, Musk said he would vote for Republicans over Democrats in that year’s midterm congressional elections.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, as voters across the United States cast their ballots in the presidential primaries, Musk baselessly accused Biden of “treason” while criticizing his handling of immigration in the United States.
When he took control of January 2021.
That riot interrupted for hours a joint session of Congress that was meeting to confirm Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.
Trump, who later launched his own social media company, Truth Social, previously said he would not return to X even if Musk lifted the ban.
Trump made an exception to that promise last summer, when he released his mugshot taken in prison after being indicted on criminal charges in the state of Georgia related to his attempt to make up for his presidential election loss to Biden. that state in 2020.
That post linked to Trump’s campaign website, which allows people to donate to his reelection effort, and to a political action committee that pays his mounting legal bills.
Thiel, a former Facebook board member, told The Atlantic last fall that he does not intend to financially support any Republican candidate, including Trump.
Thiel also said in that interview that Trump’s presidential administration, which lasted from January 2017 to January 2021, was “crazier” and “more dangerous than I thought.”
“They failed to make the most basic organs of government work,” Thiel told the media. “So it was – I think that part was maybe worse than even my low expectations.”