Trump Says Elon Musk Never Told Him About the $45M Per Month Donation

Musk voiced his support for Trump on July 13, the day of the assassination attempt. Though he has repeatedly moved to the right politically, the Tesla CEO has until recently remained silent about which candidate he supports.

President Trump praised Musk at a rally on Saturday.

“Elon. I love Elon Musk. Do we love him?” Trump asked the cheering crowd. “I love him.”

“We have to enrich the lives of smart people” like Musk, the former president said, but added that he was unaware of the billionaire’s plans and had only read reports about it.

“I didn’t know, and he didn’t tell me, but I read that he pays me $45 million a month,” Trump said. “I spoke to him a little while ago and I said, ‘I was supposed to be here, how are you doing?’ and he never said anything about it.”

Spokespeople for Musk and Trump did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.

After The Wall Street Journal published an article about Musk’s donation plans, Musk responded: He posted a meme with the caption “Fake GNUS.” But he also responded to a post from an X account that read, “Elon Musk went from being an Obama supporter to pledging $180 million to help Donald Trump win. The woke left is so messed up. It’s awful,” by replying, “Yeah right.”

On the surface, Musk’s devotion to Trump seems at odds with their own interests: One runs a successful electric vehicle company that benefits from government subsidies, while the other has made EVs a political issue.

At a rally on Saturday, Trump said he thinks electric cars are “great, but not everyone can afford them.”

“Some people have to drive long distances, and that tends to be more expensive,” he said.

Later in the rally, the former president said he plans to repeal the “electric vehicle mandate from day one,” even though the Biden administration has not implemented one.

Some critics argue that stricter emissions standards announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in March are forcing automakers to make electric vehicles the majority of their sales.

Still, Trump’s support for electric vehicles in recent weeks, while also criticizing a possible government electric vehicle mandate, marks a shift in the former president’s stance, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Musk, meanwhile, renamed his Twitter account X and gave his platform back to Trump, who has only posted a few times on the account, but said earlier this week that he supports ending government subsidies.

“Removing the subsidies will only help Tesla,” Musk said. About X July 16. “And we will remove subsidies from all industries.”