Donald Trump is considering a possible advisory role for tech billionaire Elon Musk if he were to retake the White House next year, according to sources from the Wall Street Journal.
While the two controversial figures have had a tense relationship in the past, WSJ reports they’ve shared several phone calls since March this year when they connected in person at the estate of billionaire Nelson Peltz.
The phone calls are said to have been discussions for ways that Musk– who runs social media platform X, SpaceX and Tesla– might have “formal input and influence” over economic and border security policies, according to WSJ sources familiar with the talks.
It’s also been reported that some of the talks included Peltz, and surrounded mention of a “data-driven project to prevent voter fraud”, but WSJ notes that no further details are known on this area of discussion.
As the US presidential election looms in November, Republican nominee Trump and Democratic President and party nominee Joe Biden will campaign for the nation’s top office. This emulates the country’s 2020 election, when Biden beat Trump to become President.
Trump is seeking powerful campaign donors ahead of the election. Musk, however, has reportedly said he won’t donate to either Trump or Biden’s presidential campaign, but does plan to host gatherings with fellow wealthy figures to dissuade them from supporting Biden.
It hasn’t been that long since Musk and Trump were far from allies. At a 2022 rally, Trump once called Musk “another bullshit artist” and said that Musk’s contract with Twitter at the time was a “rotten deal”. Around that time, Musk also tweeted that Trump should “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset”, and said that he’s “too old to be chief executive of anything.”
After acquiring Twitter and renaming it X, however, Musk reinstated Trump’s account, showing that tensions may have eased. Trump had been banned from the social media site following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Musk seems to be embracing the Republican party in recent times and has been critical of Biden, having said, without evidence, that Biden is intentionally allowing migrants to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Musk has also received widespread criticism for endorsing antisemitic comments on X, though he has denied being antisemitic.
Trump is currently facing a host of legal battles, and at 77-years-old is the first former president in US history to be criminally tried. On Wednesday, this first criminal trial came to a close for his alleged falsifying of business records to cover up a payment made to Stormy Daniels before his election in 2016.
All in all, Trump faces 91 felony counts across two state courts and two different federal districts, any of which could potentially produce a prison sentence.