By Aaron Pan
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk may consider endorsing a presidential candidate for the 2024 White House race, but he has not yet made such a commitment, he has revealed.
“I may, in the final stretch, endorse a candidate, but I don’t know yet,” Mr. Musk told former CNN host Don Lemon during an interview posted on several social media platforms on March 18. “I want to make a considered decision before the election, and if I do decide to endorse a candidate, then I will explain exactly why.”
During the interview, Mr. Musk discussed both presidential candidates: President Joe Biden and his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
When asked if he leaned toward any candidate, Mr. Musk said no, but indicated he is leaning away from President Biden. Mr. Lemon then suggested that Mr. Musk seemed to be endorsing President Trump “because there are only two people who are running now.”
Mr. Lemon did not mention Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running against both as an independent.
“A lot can happen between now and the election. So we’ll see who in their final analysis are the choices for president,” Mr. Musk said. “At that point, I may or may not endorse one of the candidates.”
The interview was supposed to be a part of the former CNN anchor’s original exclusive plans on X, but Mr. Musk canceled his platform’s partnership with Mr. Lemon shortly after the interview.
No Donations to Any 2024 Presidential Candidates
In the interview, Mr. Musk said he accidentally met the 45th president recently in Florida, saying that President Trump “did most of the talking.” Mr. Musk also confirmed that the former president did not ask him for donations.
Mr. Musk then said he would not plan to donate to any political candidates. “While I’ll voice my opinion, I think I don’t want to put a thumb on the scale monetarily that is significant,” the Tesla CEO said.
Mr. Musk also indicated earlier this month that he won’t donate any money to candidates in the 2024 presidential election, including President Joe Biden and former president. “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for U.S. president,” he wrote in a post on X.
Mr. Musk previously endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 election race. Mr. DeSantis launched his presidential campaign on X with Mr. Musk in May 2023, but technical issues overshadowed the launch. After a disappointing campaign, Mr. DeSantis dropped out of the race in January.
In 2022, Mr. Musk urged voters to cast their ballots for GOP candidates during the midterm elections while saying that he voted for President Biden in 2020. Last year, he made clear that he would not vote for President Biden in 2024.
In recent years, Mr. Musk has increasingly criticized the Democratic Party, calling it the party of “division” and “hate,” even though he voted for the party in the past multiple times.
Based on posts he’s made on X, Mr. Musk in recent months has aligned himself with Republican politicians on some key issues, including censorship and illegal immigration.
He has repeatedly spoken out against the Biden administration’s border policies. Earlier this month, Mr. Musk warned that the influx of “unvetted illegal immigrants” presents a national security threat and lays the groundwork for “something far worse than” the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The tech billionaire visited the southern border in September 2023 and revealed he saw “pretty extreme” numbers of people illegally entering the country. In a live stream from the Texas town of Eagle Pass, he told viewers that he saw a man with tattoos on his face entering the United States.
Earlier this year, Mr. Musk alleged that Democrats are using illegal immigrants to build up a new Democrat voting base. He accused the Biden administration of refusing to deport illegal immigrants because such individuals represent potential Democratic voters in the future. The X owner said this “simple yet effective” strategy is aimed at securing a permanent Democratic majority, effectively turning the United States into a “one-party state.”
Twitter Was ‘An Extremely Left-Leaning Group’
During the interview, Mr. Musk said that Twitter, before he took it over and renamed it to X, was “an extremely left-leaning group,” noting Twitter employees’ political donations went 99 percent for Democratic candidates.
“The old-school Twitter suspended and suppressed accounts that you’d call on the right 10 times more than they did accounts on the left. And even when they did suspend an account on the left, it was because of arguments between two people on the left,” he said.
Since purchasing the platform in 2022, Mr. Musk has lifted suspensions on the accounts of a number of prominent conservatives, including President Trump, which was banned in January 2021.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
