- Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump following the assassination attempt against the former president.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk planned to donate $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super PAC.
- Trump said Musk hadn't personally told him about such a plan.
During a rally in Michigan on Saturday, Donald Trump had high praise for Elon Musk, calling the Tesla CEO a "great" and "brilliant guy."
But the former president added that he didn't know about the tech billionaire's reported plan to donate $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super PAC that will support his campaign. The Wall Street Journal reported the plan, citing anonymous sources.
Musk came out with an endorsement of Trump on July 13, the day of the assassination attempt. Although he has repeatedly shown a rightward shift in his politics, the Tesla CEO had been silent on his preferred candidate until recently.
Trump praised Musk at the Saturday rally.
"Elon. I love Elon Musk. Do we love him?" Trump asked a cheering crowd. "I love him."
The former president said that "we have to make life good for our smart people," such as Musk, but added that he didn't know about the large donation plan and only read the report about it.
"I read — I didn't even know this, he didn't even tell me about it — but he gives me $45 million a month," Trump said, adding: "I talked to him just a little while ago to say I was coming here, 'How you doing?' and he didn't even mention it."
Musk and a spokesperson for Trump didn't return a request for comment from Business Insider.
After the Journal published the story about Musk's donation plans, Musk responded with a meme with the caption, "FAKE GNUS." But he also responded "Yeah" to a post on X that said, "Elon Musk went from being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT. The woke left really f*cked up. Badly."
On the surface, Musk's increasing gravitation toward Trump would appear at odds with their own interests: One runs a successful electrical-vehicle company that has benefited from government subsidies, while the other is making EVs a political sticking point.
During the Saturday rally, Trump said he thought electric cars were "incredible, but they're not for everybody."
"Some people have to drive long distances, and they tend to be more expensive," he said.
The former president said later in the rally that he planned to eliminate the "electric-vehicle mandate on day one," even though the Biden administration hasn't implemented such a mandate.
Some critics say the stricter emissions regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March force automakers to make EVs a large part of their sales.
Still, the Journal reported that Trump's appraisal of electric vehicles in recent weeks while bashing any potential government mandate around them represented a shift in tone from the former president.
Musk, for his part, has given Trump his platform back on Twitter-turned-X — though Trump has posted on the account only a few times — and said earlier this week that he supported taking away government subsidies.
"Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla," Musk said on X on July 16. "Also, remove subsidies from all industries."
