Washington: Tesla CEO and owner of X (formerly Twitter) Elon Musk on Wednesday asserted that he had no plans to donate money to either of the presidential candidates for the November elections. This came after he met former US President Donald Trump in Florida ahead of the Super Tuesday presidential primaries in 15 states.
"Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President," Musk said in a post on X. Trump, the sole Republican candidate for the upcoming elections, met with Musk with a small group of other people over the weekend as he seeks a major cash infusion for his presidential campaign.
In 2022, Musk asked Americans to elect a Republican Congress in US midterm elections in order to counterbalance Biden's Democrats. He recently accused Biden for encouraging migrants to come to the United States so they can vote for Democrats, even though people without US citizenship are not eligible to vote in federal elections.
In the past, Musk has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats, much like many other business titans. He has not heavily invested in a presidential campaign, in contrast to other American billionaires, and over the years, he has divided his contributions roughly equally between Republicans and Democrats, according to New York Times.
Biden vs Trump in presidential elections
In a recent development on the US presidential race, Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Haley challenged him to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her. “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” she said, while congratulating the former President. This comes as Trump and US President Joe Biden dominated the Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday in 15 states and one territory.
Haley spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump. Her departure clears Trump to focus solely on his likely rematch in November with Biden, a historic rematch that most Americans do not want, according to recent polls. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds a majority of Americans don't think either Biden or Trump has the necessary mental acuity for the job.
Haley leaves the 2024 presidential contest having made history as the first woman to win a Republican primary contest. She beat Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and in Vermont on Tuesday. She had initially ruled out running against Trump in 2024. But she changed her mind and ended up launching her bid three months after he did, citing among other things the country's economic troubles and the need for “generational change.”
(with inputs from agencies)
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