Elon Musk made his first appearance at a Donald Trump rally last night, joining the former president onstage in a bizarre speech in which he referred to himself as ‘Dark MAGA’.
Returning to the same stage in Butler, Pennsylvania where he survived an assassination attempt two months ago, Trump picked up exactly where he left off in July when a gunman’s bullet struck his ear.
He began his speech with, ‘As I was saying,’ and gestured toward an immigration chart he was looking at when the gunfire began.
‘Twelve weeks ago, we all took a bullet for America,’ Mr Trump said.
‘All we are all asking is that everyone goes out and votes. We got to win. We can’t let this happen to our country.’
Following his usual stump speech, Trump then invited SpaceX and Twitter CEO Elon Musk onstage, who made a brazenly false claim that Democrats were going to eliminate elections in the US.
After literally jumping on stage with his arms held high, Musk warned audiences that ‘this will be the last election’ in the US if Trump does not win.
The Democrats want to ‘take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms, they want to take away your right to vote, effectively,’ he told the crowd.
The SpaceX CEO then went on to criticise a California effort to ban voter ID requirements in a rambling, unfocused speech.
‘As you can see I am not just MAGA – I am Dark MAGA,’ he added, seemingly in reference to a fringe far-right meme.
‘I think this election is the most important election of our lifetime. This is no ordinary election,’ he said. ‘President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America. This is a must win situation, must win.’
‘Be a pest to everyone you know. Like, text people [to register to vote] now. Now. And then make sure they actually do vote,’ he said.
‘If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction.’
He closed his speech by urging the crowd to ‘fight fight fight’- a reference to a chant made by the crowd at several points during the rally.
The appearance marked the first time Mr Musk joined one of Mr Trump’s trademark rallies and represented the growing alliance between the two men in the final stretch of a competitive presidential election.
After regaining the mic, Trump claimed the US would reach Mars by the end of his presidential term and promised to ‘keep men out of women’s sports’.
Shortly after making that claim, Trump admitted that he had no idea what Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service, actually was.
Trump told the crowd he ‘called up Elon’ to ask him to use Starlink to assist Americans affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, where internet and communication services suffered severe disruption.
‘Elon, could you do something about Starlink, whatever the hell that is, Elon?’ Trump said.
Saturday’s rally took place at the same property where a gunman’s bullets grazed Mr Trump’s right ear and killed his supporter, Corey Comperatore, in a shooting which left multiple others injured.
Several members of Comperatore’s family, as well as other attendees and first responders from the July rally, returned to the site on Saturday.
At 6.11pm, the time when shots rang out, Trump called for a moment of silence. A bell tolled four times, once for each of the four victims- including himself.
Also appearing with the former president were his running mate Republican Ohio senator JD Vance, son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law and Republican National Convention co-chair Lara Trump.
Vice presidential nominee JD Vance, said the former president ‘took a bullet for democracy’.
Discussing the assassination attempt, Trump said the gunman ‘aimed to silence me and the MAGA movement’.
‘For 16 seconds, time stopped as this vicious monster unleashed pure evil. That villain did not succeed.’
20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks took a shot at Trump during a rally in Butler on July 13, narrowly missing the president before being gunned down by Secret Service agents. The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
A second assassination attempt on Trump was foiled last month, when Secret Service agents discovered an assailant hiding in a bush at a golf course owned by Trump in West Palm Beach, California, who also planned to shoot the former president.
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