The world’s richest man was late for his own town hall.
The crowd had been queuing for several hours. The line of enthusiasm stretched out of the hotel in this county town in Pennsylvania.
Lancaster, in Lancaster County, is an hour and half west of Philadelphia, and is one of many tight battlegrounds where the election will be decided.
The people here had all come to hear from Elon Musk. They had also come because one of them would win a million dollars.
Among the crowd outside, some told me they had already voted, thanks to this state’s early voting procedures. Others would only do it on the day, they said. But all we spoke to were locked-in Trump supporters.
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It’s quite the twist for Trump’s surrogates to be encouraging early voting after the former president’s years of claims that early voting is the source of electoral fraud.
But Team Trump knows that early voting is the surest way to make sure they maximize the number who might vote Republican.
There was something very unusual about the evening. It was hard not to think that people had been drawn here because of the prospect of winning the $1m.
The format of the evening was loose. Because of the principal’s late arrival (never explained or apologised for) the big screens were fired up with live sport. That satisfied the crowd of about a thousand for a little while.
There were a few mutters behind me about whether the weather (perfect here) had maybe delayed his landing.
It was unfortunate for the organisers that the ad break filler from the American football was a campaign advertisement for the Harris campaign. It was met with pantomime boos.
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Eventually he arrived and it was an immediate reminder that he is no orator. With a Muskian awkwardness he mumbled his first few words… “so, erm, yeah” he said, filling air.
Then a little substance: “This is an election that is a fork in the road… it’s essential… it’s like, we need safe cities, secure borders, sensible spending, basic stuff.”
From there, it was, well, meandering. It went from discussion of how excellent his social media site Twitter (now X) is, to how legacy media editors shouldn’t control our news (he didn’t explain why he should be allowed to with his obscure algorithms, zero accountability, and platform where anything goes).
There was plenty of talk about Mars and the existence of aliens. He enjoyed being told by the crowd how excellent Teslas are, especially cybertrucks.
The million-dollar moment came about an hour in, to the relief of those who could then leave, knowing that they hadn’t won.
The winner was, naturally, delighted. Mr Musk reacted like he had given away a tenner.
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Between all this, the questions from the crowd were mostly thoughtful. They clearly enjoyed being face-to-face with him.
They wanted to know his views on higher education (probably not worth it he seemed to suggest), how to reform government (‘drain the swap’ someone shouted, ‘yes’ Musk said).
He was asked to share the most useful piece of advice he had ever received.
His answer: Vote Republican, study physics and “aspire to be less wrong”.
There was an uncomfortable amount of talk from Musk about shooting.
“No one is trying to kill Kamala,” he said, as he has done before, suggesting there was little point in shooting her. “They will get another puppet… no one is trying to kill Biden.”
Then he added: “They’ve tried to kill Trump, twice.
“Trump is not beholden to anyone and that’s why the machine is trying to kill him.”
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In answer to the question about government reform, streamlining the system and making the whole thing more efficient, he had another shooting analogy.
“It’s kind of like being in a room where the entire room is covered with targets and so you can shoot in any direction and not miss. It’s like impossible to miss because in every direction there is a target.”
The crowd roared.
The wealthy, celebrities and media moguls have long been deployed by both sides in American politics to boost campaigns. But never has a singularly powerful man inserted himself into a campaign quite like this.
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No one asked him about potential conflicts of interest which could emerge if he was to join a Trump administration given his companies have huge government contracts.
No one asked him about the tax breaks he could enjoy as an administration official who divests his companies as he’d be forced to.
And no one asked about the Wall Street Journal’s reporting which claims he’s had multiple conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
