Trump Is Betting Big on Musks Swing-State Moonshot

One morning in mid-April, Elon Musk sat in a suite at the Proper Hotel in downtown Austin and texted former President Donald J.Trump.Mr.

Trump had spent the last several years deriding early and absentee voting.But now Mr.

Musk was sitting with the political team that was advising him on his nascent pro-Trump super PAC.The team told him that Republicans could win Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania only if they delivered on those kinds of votes.Mr.

Musk was aghast — and so he reached out to Mr.Trump, then the presumptive Republican nominee.

You’ve got to stop telling people not to vote early, Mr.Musk texted, according to two people to whom Mr.

Musk told this story.He was unsure his message was received.

But later that evening, Mr.Trump posted on Truth Social.“ABSENTEE VOTING, EARLY VOTING, AND ELECTION DAY VOTING ARE ALL GOOD OPTIONS,” Mr.

Trump wrote.Mr.Musk’s advisers were blown away.

Mr.Trump, who barely knew Mr.

Musk, seemed to value his opinion.Since then, the men have forged a tight alliance.Mr.

Musk, the richest man in the world, has turned his account on X, his social media platform, into a pro-Trump megaphone and joined the former president for raucous rallies.Perhaps most important, though, is the $130-million-and-counting effort led by his super PAC, America PAC, to deliver early voters in battleground states, an operation that rejects much of the conventional wisdom about how to win the White House....