Musk Says He Is ‘All in’ on Trump in US Election

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Musk Says He Is ‘All in’ on Trump in US Election

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)

Elon Musk is ramping up his public support of Donald Trump, telling Tucker Carlson in a conversation streamed Monday that he is "all in" on the Republican presidential candidate.

After appearing alongside Trump at a weekend rally, the world's richest man used a cozy two-hour chat with Carlson to push right-wing talking points, including what he said was the threat to democracy if Democrat Kamala Harris prevails in November's election.

"My view is that if Trump doesn't win this election, it's the last election we're going to have," the Tesla and SpaceX boss told former Fox News host Carlson.

Musk, who has increasingly courted controversy in recent years, said he believed "illegals" -- migrants -- were being deliberately transported to a handful of key states, where if they are eventually granted citizenship, they would become Democrat voters.

"Now these swing-state margins are sometimes ten- twenty-thousand votes. So what happens if you put hundreds of thousands of people into each swing state?

"So my prediction is, if there's another four years of a Dem administration, they will legalize so many illegals that... the next election there won't be any swing states, and this will be a single-party country."

The assertions from Musk -- who is himself from South Africa -- are a common refrain on the political right, which alleges a conspiracy between Democrats and immigrants.

Musk is increasingly becoming a surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail, and is reportedly planning to make a number of stops in battleground states in the coming weeks.

Over the weekend, he unveiled a program promising to pay $47 to anyone who registers voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The scheme is looking to copy successful referral programs the South Africa-born entrepreneur has used in the past with his Tesla electric cars.

In his nearly two-hour chat with Carlson, in which the two men chuckled repeatedly at each other's pronouncements, Musk said he had thrown his full backing behind fellow billionaire Trump.

"If he loses, it's going to be hard for you to pretend you never supported him," said Carlson.

"I'm like, all in, baby," replied Musk.

"How long do you think my prison sentence is gonna be?" he chortled, laughing at the idea that the tables would turn against him under a Democratic administration. "Will I see my children? I don't know."



Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
TT

Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake rattled buildings on Vanuatu's main island early Sunday but did not appear to have caused major damage, five days after a more powerful quake wreaked havoc and killed 12 people.

The nation's most populous island, Efate, is still reeling from the deadly 7.3-magnitude temblor on Tuesday, which toppled concrete buildings and set off landslides in and around the capital of Port Vila.

The latest quake occurred at a depth of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and was located some 30 kilometers west of the capital, which has been shaken by a string of aftershocks.

No tsunami alerts were triggered when the temblor struck at 2:30 am Sunday (1530 GMT Saturday).

Port Vila businessman Michael Thompson told AFP the quake woke his family.

"It gave a better bit of a shake and the windows rattled a little bit, it would have caused houses to rattle," he said.

"But you know, no movement other than a few inches either way, really. Whereas the main quake, you would have had like a meter and a half movement of the property very, very rapidly and suddenly.

"I'd describe this one as one of the bigger aftershocks, and we've had a fair few of them now."

Thompson said there was no sign of further damage in his immediate vicinity.

The death toll remained at 12, according to government figures relayed late Saturday by the United Nations' humanitarian affairs office.

It said 210 injuries had been registered while 1,698 people have been temporarily displaced, citing Vanuatu disaster management officials.

Mobile networks remained knocked out, making outside contact with Vanuatu difficult and complicating aid efforts.

In addition to disrupting communications, the first quake damaged water supplies and halted operations at the capital's main shipping port.

The South Pacific nation declared a seven-day state of emergency and a night curfew following the first quake.

It announced Saturday it would lift a suspension on commercial flights in an effort to restart its vital tourism industry.

The first were scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Rescuers Friday said they had expanded their search for trapped survivors to "numerous places of collapse" beyond the capital.

- Still searching -

Australia and New Zealand this week dispatched more than 100 personnel, along with rescue gear, dogs and aid supplies, to help hunt for trapped survivors and make emergency repairs.

There were "several major collapse sites where buildings are fully pancaked", Australia's rescue team leader Douglas May said in a video update on Friday.

"We're now starting to spread out to see whether there's further people trapped and further damage. And we've found numerous places of collapse east and west out of the city."

Thompson said power had been restored to his home on Saturday but said many others were still waiting.

"We're hearing a lot of the major businesses are still down, supermarkets are trying to open back up," he said.

"So this is very different to what's happened with disasters here in the past.

"Cyclones destroy everything outside, whereas earthquakes really destroy a lot of infrastructure inside the buildings."

Vanuatu, an archipelago of some 320,000 inhabitants, sits in the Pacific's quake-prone Ring of Fire.

Tourism accounts for about a third of the country's economy, according to the Australia-Pacific Islands Business Council.