After Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed him following a failed assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump spoke about Musk during a campaign speech in Michigan on Saturday, expressing his admiration for the billionaire tech entrepreneur.
Loves Elon: “I love Elon Musk,” said Trump at the rally, a video clip of the speech shared by a Tesla influencer showed.
The former president also clarified his electric-vehicle stance, saying that he is fully for them.
“But whatever the market says and if it's 10% of the market 12%, 7%, 20%, whatever it is, it's okay. You can't have 100% electric cars,” he said. “Every time, I call him he's talking about ‘I got a new idea for a rocket you have to hear this.'”
Musk also runs SpaceX, a company founded in 2002 that focuses on spacecraft manufacturing, space launches, and satellite communications. The company’s main goals are to reduce the cost of space travel and to facilitate the colonization of Mars.
Trump described SpaceX’s technology as being far more advanced than what the government could achieve.
“I'm watching television like three years ago and I see a rocket engine … come down landing straight up — no wings, no nothing — and it's landing,” he said. “It’s landing on a barge in the middle of the ocean and then another one comes down and another one, another one, I guess four of them came down, three or four, and they land upright.”
“I'd never seen that before. Now that with government, you wouldn't see that for another 50 to 100 years, but it was Elon,” Trump said.
The Republican presidential candidate said he called Musk to ask what he had just seen.
“I said that's the coolest thing I've ever seen and you say how long would it take government to come up with that one. I don't think they ever heard of it and perhaps they still haven't heard of it,” Trump told the crowd.
Voicing his support for Musk, Trump added, “We have to make life good for our smart people you know. We have some smart people. We have to make life good for our smart people, and he's as smart as you get.”
On Musk’s Endorsement, EVs: Trump said he read that Musk had pledged $45 million a month to his campaign, but Musk did not mention it to him.
“I talked to him just a little while ago to say I was coming here … and he didn't even … mention [the pledge],” Trump said.
“No, this Is a great guy, he really is, but you know, he's never mentioned to me why are you hitting the electric vehicles because he understands I'm not hitting it,” Trump said.
The former president appeared to reverse his previous stance on EVs, praising them and stating that he finds them impressive. However, he noted that EVs might not be suitable for everyone, particularly those who need to drive long distances, likely referencing concerns about range and charging infrastructure.
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