Musk participated in Trump call with Zelensky the day he won
President-elect Donald Trump added Elon Musk to a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday,The New York Times reports.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has played a key role in providing internet access to Ukraine via his Starlink satellite system as the country fights against Russia. Unnamed sources have confirmed Musk’s participation to both the Times and Axios.
The exact contents of their conversation, which took place the same day the presidential election was called in Trump’s favor, aren’t clear. One unnamed source told the Times that Zelensky called the president-elect to congratulate him, and Trump afterward handed the phone to Musk. Zelensky then thanked the billionaire for his assistance with Starlink. The source described it as a “good talk.”
Another source told Axios that Zelensky thought it was a positive sign that they had a call so soon after Trump secured a second term in the White House.
Zelensky last met with Trump in September.
“We have a common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. Putin cannot win. Ukrainians must win,” the Ukrainian president said at the time.
Musk was a central figure in Trump’s second presidential bid, and even launched the America PAC to support him. He joined Trump when he made his return to Butler, Pennsylvania last month after Thomas Crooks’ assassination attempt.
The billionaire also launched a daily lottery last month that awarded $1 million to people who sign a petition supporting First and Second amendment rights.
Musk and his PAC were later accused of launching an “illegal lottery scheme” to influence voters ahead of the presidential election. But, an attorney for the PAC revealed the “winners” were not “randomly” selected at all.
Swing-state voters who signed the PAC’s petition for a chance to be presented with a novelty-sized check were instead deliberately chosen to be paid “spokespeople” for the group, lawyer Chris Gober told a judge in Philadelphia on Monday.
This week, Musk also claimed Trump won because he went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and was “a normal person.”
He told right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson that if Kamala Harris had also gone on Rogan’s show, it “would have been game over.”
“Nothing would do more damage to Kamala’s campaign than going on Joe Rogan because she’d run out of nonsequiturs after about 45 minutes,” Musk said on a live broadcast from Mar-a-Lago on November 6.