Elon Musk employed dark and ominous rhetoric as he urged Pennsylvanians to vote for Donald Trump, seeking to turn out supporters for the Republican nominee in a critical swing state.
“The reason I’m here in person is because Pennsylvania is so important to the future of the world,” Musk said at an event in the Philadelphia area hosted by America PAC, the super political action committee he created earlier this year.
“I think this election is going to decide the fate of America. And along with the fate of America, the fate of western civilization,” he added.
Musk, donning a gold “Make America Great Again” hat, adopted much of Trump’s hyperbolic rally rhetoric, likening the situation at the US-Mexico border to a “zombie apocalypse” and said Kamala Harris winning the presidency would make the country “fully Mad Max,” referring to the dystopian action films.
He claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are allowing migrants into the country to vote for their party.
Musk’s appearance Thursday on the trail is the latest step by the world’s richest person to use his wealth and influence to help return former President Trump to the White House in what polls show is a tight race against Vice President Harris with less than three weeks to Election Day. Musk has said he plans to hold more events in Pennsylvania in the coming days.
Musk cast doubt on the security of the election system saying he would not “trust a computer program” to manage elections, adding fuel to Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voting fraud. Election experts have said there is no evidence to back those assertions.
The entrepreneur sent mixed signals about mail-in ballots, at one-point disparaging that option, while also encouraging Pennsylvanians to vote “immediately.”
Musk called for voting to happen exclusively on paper ballots to be counted by hand. Many voters record their votes on machines, but some 99% of records all are backed up by paper records, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Those machines are faster and more reliable vote counters and are audited against a sample of paper ballots to ensure accuracy, according to the group’s research.
The Tesla Inc and SpaceX chief executive officer has poured $75 million into his super PAC, launching him into the top tier of political donors supporting Trump’s campaign, and has aggressively promoted the former president on X, the social media platform Musk owns.
Pennsylvania is the most populous of the battleground states — with 19 electoral votes — giving it outsized importance for both of the campaigns. The state has attracted more advertising dollars from both campaigns than any other swing state, according to data from AdImpact.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls found Trump up by only half a percentage point in the state over Harris.
America PAC is one of several groups paying for Trump’s get-out-the-vote operations in battleground states, a risky bet the campaign has taken to bolster turnout while reducing operation costs.
The group is also focused on swing districts that could help Republicans secure a larger House majority and has funded digital ad campaigns, some of which target young men to counter Harris’ advantage among women voters.
Musk’s PAC is also using X to advertise for canvassers, offering them as much as $30 an hour to support political candidates who favor issues like border security, gun rights and free speech.
The billionaire entrepreneur’s support of Trump marks a significant shift. In previous cycles, Musk only made modest donations to federal candidates and he has had a complicated history with the Republican nominee. But this election cycle, the two find themselves in alignment on border security, taxes and government deregulation.
Musk is already a Washington player, with his companies having earned billions of dollars in federal contracts, but a Trump victory would offer him even more sway. The former president has said he would tap Musk to lead an effort to audit the federal government and reduce spending.
Musk also appeared on stage with Trump earlier this month at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — at the site of an assassination attempt against the former president in July. He also went to a Pittsburgh Steelers game, donning his black “Dark MAGA” cap, referring to Trump’s campaign slogan.
