“Democrats want to take your right to vote”: Musk panders to Trump rally crowd in Butler

Elon Musk made his far-right slide explicit on Saturday, getting on stage to deliver a speech at Donald Trump‘s rally redux in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Trump’s celebration of still being alive brought out his running mate JD Vance and several of his children before bringing the SpaceX head to the stage. Once there, Musk accused Democrats of trying to “take” Republicans “right to vote” away. He also said that Trump “must win” the election in November. 

Musk has boosted right-wing fonts of misinformation since taking over X. He’s frequently boosted conservative (and occasionally outright white supremacist) accounts on his own personal account. Musk recently lamented on X that “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” after two assassination attempts on Trump (he deleted the post after facing backlash). 

At the rally, Musk took a shot at President Joe Biden’s health while praising Trump’s bravery under fire.

“And you know, the true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire,” he said.  “We had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist-pumping after getting shot. … So who do you want representing America?”

(It should be noted that President Biden is not running for re-election. He left the race under pressure following a disastrous debate performance.)

Trump continued a years-long trend of brushing off Musk after the CEO concluded his speech. He brought up Musk’s satellite-based internet service Starlink before casually dismissing it with a “whatever the hell that is.”