Donald Trump said on Thursday that Elon Musk “never told” him that he would pledge $45 million a month to support Trump's presidential candidacy, days after the Tesla and SpaceX's CEO denied a report that he would accomplish that.
“I have a good relationship with him, I think he's a nice guy,” Trump said of Musk in a call-in interview with Fox News.
“Someone told me he would give me 45 million [dollars] a month. I said, “That sounds like a lot, even for Elon that's a lot,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
But Musk “never told me that he [$45 million],” he said.
“But he said, 'I strongly support you,' even though I oppose the electric car mandate,” Trump said, referring to the Biden administration's policy to prioritize electric vehicles over gasoline-powered vehicles.
Musk's support came shortly after Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13.
Moreover, this happened just over a week before President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from re-election and Vice President Kamala Harris became the de facto Democratic candidate.
Two days after the shooting at a Trump rally, the Wall Street Journal wrote: Citing sources familiar with the matter, that Musk plans to donate $45 million a month to a newly formed pro-Trump super PAC.
The PAC has already received large donations from other major figures in the technology and finance world, such as Joe Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins.
But Musk said in an interview with conservative celebrity Jordan Peterson that the number cited by the Journal was “simply not true.”
“I'm not giving Trump $45 million a month,” Musk said in the interview, published Monday on X, the social media site he owns.
Musk also said he founded the Super PAC called America PAC to “promote the principles that make America great in the first place.”
In an X-post on Tuesday night, Musk wrote, “I donate a few dollars to America PAC, but on a much smaller scale.” He claimed that most Republicans support the PAC's core values of “supporting meritocracy and individual freedom.”
Musk persisted when questioned about the alleged $45 million monthly pledge during a visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“I never said I was giving Trump $45 million a month,” said Muskwho had been invited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend his speech to Congress. “That was an invention of the Wall Street Journal.”
Musk said in March that he wouldn’t donate money to “either of the two U.S. presidential candidates.” However, that statement left open the chance that he could make indirect donations through a political motion committee, which he has now confirmed.
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