Benzinga - by Navdeep Yadav, Benzinga Editor.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has made it clear that he won’t be supporting President Joe Biden in the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election.
What Happened: In a statement on X on Sunday, Musk expressed his disapproval of Biden’s potential re-election, stating, “I cannot see myself voting for Biden this time.”
I cannot see myself voting for Biden this time— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2024
This revelation comes as a follow-up to Musk’s comments in a 2023 CNBC interview, where he expressed his desire for a “normal person with common sense” to become the next U.S. president. Musk’s recent remarks were made in response to his sentiments expressed in the past interview.
Why It Matters: Musk, who was once a supporter of Biden, has undergone a political shift. He revealed voting for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, citing a lack of viability in Donald Trump as an alternative.
However, Musk expressed regret over his vote for Biden in May of the following year and reiterated his preference for a “normal” president. In December 2021, he took a dig at the president by suggesting an upper age limit of 70 for those running for political office.
More recently, Musk has been openly supportive of the Republican Party, even suggesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as an ideal candidate for the 2024 presidential election in 2022.
Musk’s discontent with the Biden administration surfaced earlier when he was excluded from an EV summit hosted by the White House in August 2021. The White House hinted that the exclusion might be related to Tesla’s resistance to employee unionization. Additionally, Musk opposed the billionaires’ tax plan proposed by the Democratic Party.
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Photo: Musk: Daniel Oberhaus via Flickr; Biden: David Lienemann via the White House
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