NEW YORK – Elon Musk has said he is going to join Donald Trump for an election rally at the site of a July assassination attempt on the former president’s life. Musk, 53, announced on Friday that he will appear at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump, who served as the United States president from 2017 to 2021, is in the midst of a tight race for a second term in November, and Pennsylvania is a key swing state.

Also due to attend on Saturday are Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, and his son, Eric Trump. “I will be there to support,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, retweeting Trump’s own promotion of the rally. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has become increasingly close to Trump in recent months. After Trump, 78, was shot at by a gunman — the bullet grazing his ear — Musk announced he would be supporting the Republican in his bid to win a second term. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote after the incident. He later posted: “The martyr lived.”

The shooting on July 13, however, killed a Trump supporter, Corey Comperatore, who was listening to the former president speaking. Several others were injured. Musk has become more politically engaged as the November election approaches, frequently posting about his support for Trump and attacking Democrats. Last month, Musk deleted one of his posts saying “no one is even trying” to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, the former and current Democratic candidates, respectively.

Amid the ensuing outcry, Musk dismissed his comment as a joke. “Turns out that jokes are way less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is in plain text,” he said. Earlier this year, Musk said he was contributing USD 45 million to a political action committee, America PAC, that was supporting Trump’s run. Trump has often spoken warmly of Musk, even saying he backs the billionaire’s electrical vehicle production, despite having long attacked the industry by claiming it harms workers in traditional car plants. (Al Jazeera)…[+]