What triggered Elon Musk to be Donald Trump's biggest cheerleader and Biden's biggest critic

As Donald Trump inches closer to victory in the US presidential elections, one man has been by his side cheering him on. Elon Musk became Trump's star campaigner, both offline and online, soon after a failed assassination bid against the former US president during a rally, but the two did not always see eye to eye.

In fact, Elon Musk supported Donald Trump's rivals Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Elon Musk and Joe Biden: What happened

Musk, who had previously described himself as "half Democrat, half Republican", began hitting out at US President Joe Biden and his administration over their policies soon after he was elected.

The relationship soured further in 2021 when he took to Twitter, now X, to complain that his company Tesla wasn’t invited to the White House’s summit on the future of electric cars despite it selling 74% of all EVs in the country.

In September 2021, following the launch of all-civilian space flight, Musk hit out at Biden when he was asked why he had not yet congratulated SpaceX. “He’s still sleeping," Musk said in a mocking post on X.

Musk also criticised Biden's support to workers' unions and said he was unable to "get a lot done".

In 2022, he said Musk slammed the Democratic party labelling them as “the party of division & hate" and said that he would shift to the Republican side. But he still remained critical of Republican party's biggest candidate - Donald Trump.

(Also read: Where is Joe Biden now? Here's how US president spent election night)

From critic to confidante: Musk and Trump

Before Donald Trump was voted to power in 2016, Musk slammed the Republican and said he was not the right guy for the job. "I feel a bit stronger that he is probably not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," he said.

In 2022, he opined that Trump should give up on his re-election bid: “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”

He said that Trump's presidency would be “too much drama”. “Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!?" he had said.

However, the relationship between the two became more cordial after Musk bought Twitter and reinstated the former president’s account. Over the next two years, Musk stopped short of endorsing Trump calling the decision a "difficult choice" but that changed in the run up to the election this year when Trump narrowly escaped an assassination bid at a rally in Pennsylvania.

"I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery," he wrote in a post on X, hours after the attack. In October, Trump returned to Pennsylvania for another rally and this time, Musk was by his side, supporting him. Wearing a black "Make America Great Again" cap, he warned that if Trump lost, it might be the last election and it was crucial to vote for him to save American democracy.

He also claimed that if Kamala Harris won, she would shut down X and throw him in jail for supporting Trump and his campaign. Today, Musk has declared Trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential elections on X. "The people of America gave Donald Trump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight," he wrote.

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