Former President Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican National Committee want to persuade Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to speak at the Republican Party convention in July, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Republican leaders believe giving Musk a chance to speak at the convention could lead some of his fans to boost what has been historically lagging support for the party among young adult voters on Election Day, a source familiar with that belief said.
Trump is expected to be confirmed at an event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Republican Party's presidential nominee, setting up a 2020 rematch against President Joe Biden in the election next November.
Musk's potential role as speaker was revealed after he met with Trump and a group of wealthy Republican donors last weekend in Palm Beach, Florida. It is not clear whether Trump or his allies raised the idea with Musk.
This sitting came days before the former president's landslide victories in the Super Tuesday primaries, which prompted his last major rival, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, to withdraw from the nomination contest.
People who spoke to CNBC for this story were granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
If Musk, who also owns the social media site X, appears at the convention, it will be an implicit, and perhaps explicit, endorsement of Trump's candidacy.
Peter Thiel, Musk's longtime financial backer and co-founder of PayPal, served a similar purpose when he spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, which first nominated Trump for president.
One source familiar with the matter indicated that RNC leadership's interest in having Musk speak at the convention has already been discussed with Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair who resigned at a committee meeting in Houston on Friday.
This source said new RNC Chairman Michael Whatley would likely endorse Musk's invitation to speak, as would new RNC co-chair Lara Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law.
Representatives for Trump and the Republican National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
It remains to be seen if the Republican National Committee will invite Musk, or if he wants to attend the convention.
Musk, who has a net worth of about $200 billion, said this week that he does not plan to donate money to the Trump or Biden campaigns.
But a person familiar with the Florida meeting last weekend said some Trump advisers hope Musk will start backing the Republican nominee.
Musk has not publicly ruled out donating money to a pro-Trump political action committee, or a nonprofit organization that supports the former president's policies.
Musk previously expressed support for the GOP presidential nomination for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who suspended his campaign in January after disappointing primary results against Trump.
Musk also hosted an event last year on Twitter Spaces for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking the White House as an independent candidate.
Musk did not support Trump in the previous two Republican Party campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
The two have clashed in the past.
In June 2017, Musk resigned from Trump's White House advisory board, citing the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
In July 2022, Trump criticized the mega-billionaire for saying he had never voted for a Republican before casting his vote earlier that year for the Texas GOP nominee for a special election for the House of Representatives.
“He said one day, 'Oh, I never voted for a Republican,'” Trump said at that rally. “He told me he voted for me, so he's another bull—an artist.”
“I don't hate the guy, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and ride off into the sunset,” Musk tweeted within days. “Democrats should also call off the attack — don't do it so Trump's only goal is to win back the presidency.”
While Musk continues to describe himself as a “moderate,” his public political comments have been moving to the right for years.
His social and political commentary in his posts on
Earlier in 2022, Musk said he would vote for Republicans over Democrats in that year's congressional elections.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, as voters across the United States cast their ballots in the presidential primaries, Musk baselessly accused Biden of “treason,” while criticizing his handling of immigration in the United States.
When he took control of
These riots disrupted a joint session of Congress for hours that was meeting to confirm Biden's victory in the Electoral College.
Trump, who then launched his own social media company, Truth Social, had previously said he would not return to X even if Musk rescinded the ban.
Trump made an exception to that pledge last summer, when he posted a prison photo of himself taken after he was booked on felony charges in Georgia related to his attempt to undo his loss to Biden in that state's 2020 presidential election.
The post links to Trump's campaign website, which allows people to donate to his reelection efforts and to the political action committee that is paying his mounting legal bills.
Thiel, a former Facebook board member, told The Atlantic last fall that he did not plan to financially support any Republican candidate, including Trump.
Thiel also said in that interview that Trump's presidential administration, which ran from January 2017 to January 2021, was “crazier” and “more dangerous than I thought.”
“They couldn’t get the basic parts of government running,” Thiel told the media. “So this was — I think this part was probably even worse than my low expectations.”
