Elon Musk boards the Trump train out of California

Elon Musk is parting from his home state, publicly endorsing Trump minutes after the former president was almost assassinated at his rally in Pennsylvania. Musk also announced he will be donating $45 million to a pro-Trump political action committee and that he will be moving the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Austin, Texas. 

He is among many other Silicon Valley billionaires who are announcing their support for Trump following the attack, including Bill Ackman, the Pershing Square Capital Management CEO.

Musk cited California governor Gavin Newsom’s new law that bars school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change as the “final straw,” as the law was “attacking both families and companies.”  

California state senator Scott Wiener, a former chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, called Musk “a textbook example of why kids shouldn’t be forced to come out to their parents.” Musk said he made “it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.” 

Newsom took to X and shared a 2022 tweet from Trump saying that he could have asked Musk to “‘drop to his knees and beg’ and he would have done it.” Trump was referring to Musk’s desperate requests for federal subsidies for his projects at X and SpaceX. “You bent the knee,” Newsom wrote. To this, Musk replied, “You never get off your knees.” 

And Trump’s decision to nominate J.D. Vance, a former venture capitalist, as his VP candidate, only solidified Musk’s support. Vance has connections with Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, who donated $15 million to his senate campaign, and David Sacks, who has been vocal about his support for Musk since he acquired Twitter. Vance also praised Musk during a Newsmax segment in Milwaukee, stating he’s “a great example of an American entrepreneur.

“He’s built a company, but also a company that’s employed a lot of good American workers. If you think about it, Elon Musk is, in some ways, a throwback to an older generation of American entrepreneur. He builds real things,” he added.

After Trump’s announcement, Musk congratulated Vance on X, calling it an “excellent decision.”

“TRUMP VANCE,” he wrote, “Resounds with victory.”

Musk wrote on X that he’s personally “not speaking at the RNC.” But who knows, considering his new status as the Trump campaign’s largest donor, maybe he’ll change his mind this evening…