'Brilliant guy': Trump 'open to appointing Elon Musk as adviser'
Former US president says if re-elected he would give role to tech giant
August 22, 2024
Former president of the US and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has stated that he would be open to naming Tesla’s CEO and tech giant Elon Musk as an adviser or appointing him to the cabinet if came to power following elections.
"He's a very smart guy. I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He's a brilliant guy," Trump told Reuters.
Trump and Musk have been growing closer with the latter endorsing the former on his X account last month for the US presidential election 2024 after the former president narrowly survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The growing ties between the two were further highlighted after Trump joined the X CEO for an interview on the social media site earlier this month where Musk again endorsed his guest for the presidency.
Although the interview was delayed by over 40 minutes due to technical issues, it still allowed the former president to present his grievances and opinions in an open platform.
This is not the first time during this US election season that Musk has been brought up for a cabinet or advisory position as back in May, the Wall Street Journal had reported that the tech tycoon met with Trump and discussed a potential role in the latter's administration if he were to be re-elected in office.
Interestingly, the WSJ's claims were pushed back by the founder of SpaceX.
However, even if Trump defeats Vice President Kamala Harris on November 5 and goes on to elect Musk for a governmental role, then it would not be the first time for the billionaire to assume such a role.
Back in 2016, when Trump was elected to the White House, Musk was named in two of the advisory councils where he worked to influence environmental and immigration policies.
As per Forbes, the SpaceX CEO resigned from the role after the then president Trump decided to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement in 2017 that aimed to overcome the climate crisis across the globe.
