MSNBC’s Super Tuesday panel discussed reported Mar-a-Lago meeting between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, suggesting that if the X owner infuses the former president with cash, he could “literally own” Trump in a second term.
According to a New York Times report, Trump is seeking a cash infusion from the billionaire and met with Musk on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida (Musk posted Wednesday on X that he would not be donating to either candidate).
“Musk is, of course, one of the two richest people on Earth and could single-handedly erase any financial advantage Democrats might have headed into the general election,” Rachel Maddow said. “If he wanted to play it that way.”
“And we’re sure that money is not to pay Donald Trump’s legal bills?” Joy Reid questioned.
“It can,” Stephanie Ruhle replied. “And when we all sit here and think ‘Oh my gosh, Donald Trump owes $83 million [to] E. Jean Carroll he owes $400 million here’ and we say, ‘he doesn’t have that money.’”
“Guess what?” Ruhle continued. “Whether it is Elon Musk or other supremely wealthy forces out there, they would be happy to pay the bills for somebody who could be the next president.”
Ruhle pointed out how much Musk would enjoy if he “owned the president.”
“Musk has tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars of government contracts with the Pentagon through SpaceX,” Chris Hayes noted. “He has unbelievable amounts of interest in regulatory affairs. He is currently suing to get rid of the National Labor Relations Act of the New Deal to destroy unions across the board and render them unconstitutional and that’s a current lawsuit he has filed onto.”
Hayes added that because of Mitch McConnell and “the MAGA court,” there is such an “obviously corrupt setup.”
“The fact that he could back Donald Trump, the fact that he could pay his bills and be able to push Donald Trump around, giddy-up, that’s an easy environment for him,” Ruhle said of Musk.
“By the way, he controls Starlink which is critical to the defense of Ukraine and to the U.S. defense establishment,” Reid added. “This guy could be the J.P. Morgan of the current era and he would literally own a desperate fearful man.”
“Donald Trump is afraid…But he could be saved right now and all he needs is a billionaire who needs to own him and he gets to be president and he gets to dismiss all of his cases, boom,” Reid said.
Ruhle added that Trump is “running for his life.”
“There’s something very clarifying about Elon Musk and Donald Trump together in the same room because it cuts through a lot of the faux populism or nonsense that masks fundamentally the material interest being pursued by this,” Hayes said.
On Wednesday, however, Musk denied that he would be contributing to Trump’s campaign or hefty legal bills, writing on x “I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.”
Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2024
