BUTLER, Pennsylvania -- Elon Musk said the reason he was in Butler on Oct. 5 to speak at former President Donald Trump's rally was because of the critical nature of this year's presidential election.
"The reason I'm here is because I think this is the most important election in our lifetime. This may be the most important election that has ever happened," Musk said.
The world's richest man and the leader of Tesla and X was standing in the holding room behind the stage of the event, on a dirt floor, with white curtains behind him, and chicken crates and haystacks to his right. "I think we're looking at the destiny of civilization, of America, the western civilization," he said.
The traditionally media-shy Musk, wearing an "Occupy Mars" shirt underneath a black sport coat and "Make America Great Again" baseball cap, was all smiles as he and Trump bantered back and forth during the interview.
"I think President Trump represents the actual path to a democratic future, ironically, because they say he's a threat to democracy. But, in fact, the ones saying he's a threat to democracy are the ones who are a threat to democracy in reality," Musk said.
Musk famously endorsed Trump in a post on X minutes after a gunman tried to kill the former president here in July.
Musk, a robust supporter of free speech even before he purchased X, said, "Who are the ones that are trying to silence free speech? That's the Democrats. They're the ones trying to silence free speech. You know who the bad guys are, the ones who want to stop you from speaking, those are the bad guys. It's a no-brainer."
Musk said he recognizes that the people here in Butler, and in places all across the country that aren't located in the centers of power and wealth, are the ones most concerned about protecting and preserving both free speech and the Second Amendment.
"America is about freedom and opportunity," he said. "You have to have freedom to speak your mind. What is the First Amendment? Why does it exist? Because in the countries people came from, you'd get arrested or killed for speaking your mind. Why is the Second Amendment there? Because you weren't allowed to own firearms in other countries so they could oppress you. The thing protecting the First Amendment is the Second Amendment."
Trump leaned over: "Salena, he's worth $300 billion. Salena, $300 billion. I worked my ass off, and I'm like a fraction of that," he joked.
Earlier in the day, a woman I interviewed said that, to her, Musk is the Benjamin Franklin of our era: an inventor, a proponent of free speech, and a disrupter. She said she really liked that he both "made things" and explored the newest frontier through space. "That is part of the American ethos, hard work, innovations, but also helping people out in the way he has done with Starlink in North Carolina," she said.
"I try to be as helpful as possible," Musk said with a smile. "Well, if it wasn't for President Trump, this would be hopeless."
Musk said his message was to make sure people exercise their voting power.
"I think we really need to encourage people to register to vote," he said. "That's my main message today, everyone in the audience, there's nothing more important than registering to vote.
"Anyone. People in the streets. Everyone. Friends, family, people you run into. Text them right now," he said, encouraging people to "swamp the vote."
"Check swampthevote.com to see if you're registered. Everyone here has one mission. Everyone listening, you've got one mission. Register everyone you know to vote," he said.
Youngstown State University political science professor Paul Sracic said it's hard to overstate how significant Musk's full-throated endorsement of Trump is this year. "Musk is to the 2020s what Trump was to the 1980s and '90s. He is a celebrity businessman. Trump famously appeared in one of the 'Home Alone' movies, and Musk made a guest appearance on 'The Big Bang Theory,'" he said of Musk's cultural impact.
"Also like Trump, he is a risk-taker and builder, something that appeals to the American psyche. People forget, but one of the things that helped Trump when he first ran for president was his ability to get things done. His rebuilding and restoration of the skating rink in Central Park, something the New York City parks department had failed to do, was frequently mentioned," Sracic said.
Musk is the classic self-made billionaire, Sracic explained: "He made his initial fortune by helping to design PayPal, an innovative online payment system that was later purchased by eBay. Rather than sit on his wealth, or just try to grow it by investing in the stock market, Musk used it to build other things. In almost every case, Musk's innovations paralleled things the government was trying to do, but he did it better," he said.
Think of it this way: The Inflation Reduction Act tries to use government subsidies to encourage companies to build and consumers to buy electric vehicles, while Musk actually makes vehicles.
For the past 60 years, one of the symbols of American ingenuity and world dominance has been the space program run by NASA, a government agency, Sracic explained. "Over the years, NASA has begun contracting out its rocket program to private companies. One of those companies, Boeing, was supposed to transport our astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station on their Starliner capsule. When that capsule was found to have potential safety issues, trapping two U.S. astronauts on the space station for months, it is Musk's SpaceX that will rescue them next February," he said.
Polls clearly show that people are unhappy with the direction of the country. Failures such as this one by NASA, along with our crumbling infrastructure, make voters feel like we as a nation are falling apart.
The Biden-Harris administration has tried to appeal to voters by a combination of intense government spending on projects and industrial policy, which subsidizes private businesses. "And they are upset that the American people don't properly credit them for their achievements, and sometimes blame the press for not covering the story," Sracic said.
What the Harris campaign misses, however, is the hunger people have for innovation. "We don't want to be as good as the Chinese; we want to be better," Sracic said. "When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, we didn't just want to launch a rival satellite; we wanted to go to the moon. That's the America people want back again."
Sracic said there are several ways that Musk and Trump are alike. "Trump could have taken his money and had a nice retirement. Instead, he entered politics and went from being an admired celebrity to being ridiculed and attacked. In the same way, Musk didn't have to buy Twitter. In fact, it was by all accounts a poor financial decision. But Musk, like Trump, wanted, to quote Teddy Roosevelt, to be 'the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.'"
Minutes after the interview, Musk took to the stage and was greeted with wild enthusiasm by the crowd, an enthusiasm he responded to by jumping in the air.
While many of the political elite still struggle to understand the connection two billionaires would have with the working and middle class of the country and why both Trump and Musk meet that moment, it is real and has much to do with being seen and respected by both of them.
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