Billionaire Elon Musk spoke about the upcoming presidential election in stark terms during an appearance Saturday alongside Donald Trump, calling him the only candidate “to preserve democracy in America.”
The chairman and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, who also bought Twitter and renamed it X, joined Mr. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president survived an assassination attempt in July . He warned that “this would be the last election” if the Republican candidate did not win and, wearing a black cap with the slogan “Make America Great Again,” he appeared to recognize the worrying nature of his remarks.
“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA,” he said.
It was the first time Mr. Musk had joined one of Mr. Trump’s signature rallies, representing the growing alliance between the two men in the final stretch of a close presidential election.
Mr. Trump said he would put Elon Musk in charge of a commission on government efficiency if he returned to the White House.
The former president joined Elon Musk in August for a rare public conversation about X, an extremely friendly discussion that lasted more than two hours. During it, the former president focused largely on the July assassination attempt, illegal immigration and his plans to reduce government regulations.
In front of a huge crowd on Saturday, Elon Musk sought to portray Mr. Trump as a champion of free speech, saying Democrats want to “take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to wear weapons, they want to take away your fight to vote, in fact.”
Mr. Musk then criticized a California initiative to ban voter ID requirements. Saturday’s rally took place on the same property where a gunman’s bullets grazed Mr. Trump’s right ear and killed a supporter, Corey Comperatore. The shooting also left several people injured.
Several members of Mr. Comperatore’s family, as well as other participants and first responders from the July rally, returned to the scene on Saturday. Also present alongside the former president were his running mate, Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance, his son Eric Trump, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, as well as Pennsylvania lawmakers and sheriffs.
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Ms. Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina.
