• Biden's campaign slammed Elon Musk for donating to a pro-Trump super PAC.
• Musk's donated a "sizeable amount" to America PAC, which supports Trump's 2024 presidential bid.
• Musk's previous political donations have leaned Republican, and he has criticized Biden repeatedly.

President Joe Biden's campaign blasted Elon Musk after reports that Musk donated to a pro-Trump super PAC this week.

Musk donated an undisclosed amount of money to America PAC — a super PAC working to elect Donald Trump in 2024 — Bloomberg first reported on Friday. Sources familiar with the donation told the outlet it contained a "sizable amount" of cash.

Biden's campaign criticized the donation as "arrogant" and said Trump's policies would raise taxes for working-class people.

"Arrogant billionaires only out for themselves are not what America wants or what America needs," James Singer, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, told Bloomberg in a statement. "Elon knows Trump is a sucker who will sell America out, cutting his taxes while raising taxes on the middle class by $2,500."

Representatives for the Biden campaign did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider on Saturday. Musk did not respond to an email request for comment.

Musk's political donations have been fairly consistent since the early 2000s, and he has not publicly endorsed a candidate for the 2024 presidential race. In March, the billionaire indicated on X that he had no plans to donate to either candidate.

Still, Musk has increasingly weighed in on hot-button political issues since Donald Trump left the White House in 2020, repeatedly hurling insults and criticism at Joe Biden. In 2022, he called Biden a "damp sock puppet" after he met with executives from Ford and GM about electric vehicle development and excluded Musk's company, Tesla.

Musk even took to X on Thursday to criticize the President's press conference, where he mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump."

"This is real!!??" Musk said on X in response to a clip of Biden's gaffe.

Musk also publicly defended Trump after the former president's felony conviction for falsifying business records in May. Musk echoed Trump's narrative that the conviction was an act of political persecution.

"Indeed, great damage was done today to the public's faith in the American legal system," Musk wrote in a post on X.

Trump is also reportedly considering Musk for a position as an advisor should he win the presidential election in November. Sources familiar with the discussions told The Wall Street Journal that the two discussed ways to give Musk input on border security and economic policies.

A 2022 analysis by Business Insider found that Musk donated slightly more money to Republicans than Democrats in the prior two decades, giving $574,500 to the GOP and $542,000 to Democrats.

• Meta announced plans to remove its January 6-era restrictions from Donald Trump's accounts.
• Trump had been banned and then reinstated on Meta's Facebook and Instagram as well as X and YouTube.
• Though his old social media accounts are now unrestricted, Trump is sticking with Truth Social.

Donald Trump's social media accounts have returned to pre-Capitol riot status.

Meta on Friday announced plans to remove a heightened suspension penalty from the former president's accounts. The restriction, which increased the punishment for rule violations to include automatic re-suspension of his account, had been put in place when Meta first reinstated his account in January 2023 following a two-year suspension.

The social media giant had originally banned Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts "following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6."

"With the party conventions taking place shortly, including the Republican convention next week, the candidates for President of the United States will soon be formally nominated," read Meta's press release regarding its decision. "In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis."

The statement said that the penalties were considered "a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances" and ultimately were never needed because Trump didn't continue to violate the platform's terms after reinstatement.

The reversal of restrictions on Trump's accounts comes just days after Trump threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with prison time if he's elected again, escalating the pair's yearslong public feud.

When reached for comment by Business Insider, a spokesperson for Meta declined to answer specific questions regarding the timing and rationale behind the decision or whether any other restrictions remain on the former president's social media accounts.

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign had a scathing response for Meta, calling it a "greedy, reckless decision" on the company's part and warning against "undemocratic, un-American misinformation" from Trump and MAGA Republicans.

"Restoring his access is like handing your car keys to someone you know will drive your car into a crowd and off a cliff," campaign spokesperson Charles Lutvak told The Hill. "It is holding a megaphone for a bonafide racist who will shout his hate and white supremacy from the rooftops and try to take it mainstream. Without question, it is a direct attack on our safety and our democracy."

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Meta appears to be the final major social media platform to roll back the last of its January 6-era restrictions on Trump's accounts. Trump was originally banned from Meta's platforms, X (formerly Twitter), and Google-owned YouTube days after the Capitol riot.

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he reinstated Trump's account in November 2022. Meta reinstated his Facebook and Instagram accounts in January 2023 with the now-terminated restrictions — and YouTube gave Trump his channel back in March of the same year.

Though his old social media accounts are now unrestricted and boasting tens of millions of followers, Trump is still primarily sticking with his own company, Truth Social.

After being removed from mainstream sites, Trump founded an alternative social networking site and has used it as his primary platform since its launch in February 2022.

Truth Social went public in March, initially boosting Trump's net worth by billions, but the company has faced financial woes and an uncertain share price following SEC disclosures that revealed massive losses.

Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• A man says his Tesla malfunctioned, accelerating on its own after a collision in Nevada.
• The couple said the incident followed a head-on collision with a Jeep that they caught on camera.
• The Tesla driver was able to stop his car by braking, he told a local NBC affiliate.

A Tesla driver said his car malfunctioned and began accelerating on its own after a collision with another car.

It was scary enough when Radu and Angela Stefan were in a head-on collision with another vehicle while driving their Tesla on Mount Charleston in Nevada on the afternoon of July 7.

But the nightmare got worse when Radu Stefan's Tesla began accelerating on its own moments after a Jeep Rubicon turned around a corner and hit them head-on while they were stopped at an intersection, he told a local news outlet. The Jeep later drove away from the scene, according to Stefan.

"It was like a horror movie," Stefan told KSNV, an NBC affiliate station in Las Vegas. "We were just horrified, experiencing it. Just in shock."

Stefan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

"We lost control of the car," Stefan told KSNV. "The car went towards the mountain, and I was barely able to stop it at one point, but that we saw in the rearview mirror the people who hit us, they just left."

Stefan did not say in the interview if he had any of Tesla's self-driving or driver-assist software engaged at the time of the collision.

Nevada State Police, who responded to the crash and are investigating the incident and searching for the Jeep driver, according to KSNV, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla's vehicles have drawn regulator scrutiny in recent years around their self-driving and assisted-driving features. The company recalled 2 million Teslas in 2023 amid a litany of crashes associated with the Autopilot feature and a yearslong probe from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Even so, the NHTSA opened a fresh Tesla investigation in April after the vehicle crashes continued despite the recall. One man reported that his Tesla was in Autopilot mode when it drove onto train tracks that it mistook for the road.

• Delta Air Lines has apologized after a perceived anti-Palestine social media post.
• A since-deleted reply from Delta's official account called the Palestinian flag terrifying.
• Delta has since revised its uniform policy to only permit US flag pins.

Delta Air Lines has issued a public apology for a perceived anti-Palestinian social media post.

Earlier this week, a post on X shared images of two Delta flight attendants wearing Palestinian flag pins.

The post, which incorrectly equated the Palestinian flag to the militant group Hamas' flag, read: "Since 2001 we take our shoes off in every airport because a terrorist attack in US soil. Now imagine getting into a @Delta flight and seeing workers with Hamas badges in the air. What do you do?"

A since-deleted reply from Delta's official account said: "I hear you as I'd be terrified as well, personally. Our employees reflect our culture and we do not take it lightly when our policy is not being followed."

In a statement to The Washington Post on Thursday, Delta apologized for the incident and said it had taken action against the employee responsible for the airline's post, noting that the comment "was not in line with our values and our mission."

The employee responsible for the comment "has been counseled and no longer supports Delta's social channels," the airline added.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told The Post that the comment could make people think that the Palestinian flag is "an icon of a hate group."

"What happened with Delta is just the latest example of anti-Palestinian racism," Mitchell said. "And my hope is that this incident will begin to slowly, slowly move the needle in a different direction."

Azka Mahmood, an executive director from the CAIR chapter in Georgia, said that equating the Palestinian flag with Hamas "erases the existence and legitimacy of the entirety of Palestine," per CNN.

"The Palestinian flag represents a country and national aspirations of over 7 million Palestinians," she said. "It is clear that some groups want to delegitimize the flag of Palestine entirely, suppress any expression of the existence of Palestine, and discourage open support for Palestinian rights."

The CAIR said on X that it welcomed the apology from Delta and hoped that "it sends a message to those who continue to dehumanize the Palestinian people as they face genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced starvation imposed by the far-right Israeli government, and enabled by the Biden admin."

Following the incident, Delta announced that starting Monday, only US flag pins would be permitted to be worn on its uniforms, per The Post.

Some Delta employees pushing to unionize are now demanding a public apology from the airline's leadership.

In an open letter to Delta CEO Ed Bastian, the group said: "Delta leadership must publicly apologize to the targeted crew members, confirm that pins representing the flags of different nations are allowed per policy."

"Everyone should be able to freely express their pride and support for their heritage without encountering hostility or discrimination from employers or customers," it continued.

Business Insider contacted Delta and CAIR for comment.

The flags

The Palestinian flag features a red triangle on the left side next to horizontal stripes of black, white, and green. It is based on the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt.

The Hamas flag is solid green with white Arabic script in the center.

The current version of the Palestinian flag was adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964.

The flag has featured prominently in pro-Palestinian protests across the world, being used as a symbol of solidarity by people calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israel launched an intense military campaign in the territory following Hamas' October 7 attacks, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the resultant conflict so far, according to Gaza's health ministry.

• An entity that appears to be affiliated with King Charles scooped up a $6.6 million NYC condo.
• It's located on Billionaires' Row, a neighborhood with south of Central Park.
• A building rep told BI that consulates have historically purchased units in residential buildings.

An entity that appears to be affiliated with King Charles III has scooped up a lavish apartment on New York City's Billionaires' Row.

The buyer on closing documents for the almost 3,600-square-foot condo, which sold for $6.6 million on June 27, is listed as "His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs."

The deed was signed by Robert McCubbing, whose LinkedIn page identifies him as the senior trade commissioner and director of trade and investment for the Consulate General of Canada in New York.

McCubbing told The New York Post that Global Affairs Canada bought the unit to use as "the Official Residence for the Consulate General of Canada in New York."

Although King Charles is listed on related documents, McCubbing said doing so is a standard practice because Canada is part of the Commonwealth.

"His name is used on legal documentation. It's a function of Canada being a constitutional monarchy," McCubbing told the outlet.

He added that King Charles would not personally use the unit.

The three-bedroom, 4½-bathroom apartment is on the 11th floor of 111 West 57th Street, a skyscraper just south of Central Park known for its slender design. That stretch of 57th Street and the surrounding area is home to some of the most expensive residential real estate on earth.

The sale was first reported by The Real Deal.

The Consulate General of Canada in New York, Buckingham Palace. and McCubbing did not immediately to Business requests for comment from Business Insider.

Douglas Elliman's Erin Boisson Aries and Thomas Aabo repped the buyer, according to The Real Deal. They declined Business Insider's request for comment through an Elliman spokesperson.

Unit 11A was the last unit left for sale in 111 West 57th Street's landmarked Steinway Building section, a 111 West 57th Street spokesperson said. There are 14 condos in that lower part, which used to be the headquarters of iconic piano maker Steinway & Sons, and 46 apartments in the tower portion of the building.

The condo is ideal for someone who "enjoys modern conveniences within grand spaces reminiscent of the pre-war era," according to its listing on New York real-estate site StreetEasy.

Building amenities at 111 West 57th Street include an 82-foot, two-lane swimming pool with private cabanas, a private dining room and chef's catering kitchen, and an on-site padel court.

The deed for the transaction hit New York City's public records database on July 9.

It's far from the only NYC property tied to the crown, The Real Deal reported, noting it found 24 properties across the city affiliated with the Queen in the wake of her death — at which point King Charles became the sovereign of Canada.

• John Fetterman has repeatedly gone to bat for Biden as some Democrats call for a new nominee.
• At a recent Democratic lunch, Fetterman reportedly asked senators if Biden should continue his campaign.
• Only a smattering of lawmakers agreed with Fetterman, according to Politico.

Since joining the upper chamber last year, Sen. John Fetterman has been one of President Joe Biden's strongest political allies.

And after Biden's disastrous debate performance — which has led to a chorus of congressional Democrats asking the president to step aside as the party's presidential nominee — the Pennsylvania lawmaker has doubled down in his support of the embattled leader.

But so far, many Senate Democrats appear highly skeptical of Biden's chances in November, despite only one Democratic senator publicly calling on the President to forgo his reelection bid.

During a Senate Democratic lunch on Thursday — where Biden's top campaign aides spoke about his polling and a path forward — Fetterman voiced his frustration at the pessimism in the room regarding the president's chances, Politico reported.

"You have legacies, too," Fetterman told the senators who were present in the room, according to the outlet. (Some senators had already left the meeting before Fetterman rose to speak, Politico reported.)

The first-term lawmaker also questioned senators about what their legacies would look like if they turned on Biden over a bad debate, according to the report.

When Fetterman asked his fellow Democrats if they'd want to see Biden continue in the race, only a handful of people in the room — four in total — joined him in agreement, according to Politico.

The lawmakers who stood with Fetterman included Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, per the report.

Democratic senators have largely remained mum on Biden's chances in public despite their long-standing support of the president's legislative priorities, but their reported views behind closed doors reveal the hesitancy that still permeates the caucus.

For weeks, Fetterman has looked to dunk on Democrats who have gone against Biden, arguing that their lack of support only serves to embolden former President Donald Trump's campaign.

"I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden's shoulder after the debate," the senator wrote on X after the June debate. "No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record."

Fetterman — who faced criticism from some Democrats after his own debate performance in the high-stakes 2022 Senate race which featured then-GOP candidate and celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz — brushed aside naysayers that year.

And he has done the same for Biden — who has insisted that he's not leaving the presidential race — ahead of the general election.

During a June appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Fetterman compared his campaign situation with that of the president.

"We had a difficult debate, and yet we still managed to go on to win," he said at the time. "One debate is not a career."

• Elon Musk's politics may seem to be all over the place, but he's demonstrated a consistent pattern.
• As far as political donations are concerned, he's been splitting his bets since the early 2000s.
• While he's kept donating to both parties, Musk has also more openly embraced the GOP.

Though Elon Musk may appear these days like your typical right-wing billionaire, that hasn't always been the case. 

The Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI CEO's rightward lean is actually the culmination of a political evolution that's been playing out over decades.

And as one of the richest and most powerful people in the world, Musk's political stances carry a great weight.

Musk's political donations dating back to 2002 fit neatly into just a single landing page on OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. And he's contributed to both sides of the political aisle — most recently, reportedly donating to a pro-Trump super PAC.

Though Musk historically hasn't been big on political donations, he's publicly said that he weighs in on politics when it could affect his businesses. And 2024 may have the biggest effect on Musk yet. 

Ever since Trump left the White House, the billionaire has increasingly inserted himself into debates over hot-button topics, waged a largely one-way feud with President Joe Biden, and cozied up to Donald Trump. 

Here's how Musk got here.

The early years: From apartheid-era South Africa to Tesla takeover

Musk, 52, has said very little publicly about apartheid, the system of racial segregation that became the defining issue of his childhood in the Republic of South Africa.

His father, Errol — who inherited wealth from half of an emerald mine he used to own — was elected to Pretoria City Council in 1972, running under the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. The apartheid system was a major motivation behind the younger Musk's decision to leave South Africa for Canada in 1989, according to Ashlee Vance's 2015 biography of the billionaire. 

Growing up in the primarily white suburbs outside of Johannesburg, Musk was also surrounded by censorship and disinformation about the government's treatment of Black people, The New York Times reported in May. His mandatory government service was what first exposed him to the reality of the situation, according to the Times, who spoke with a high school classmate of Musk's about the insulated experience.

"People, at some point, realize that they've been fed a whole lot of crap," Andrew Panzera, who was in Musk's German class, told the Times. "At some point you go, 'Jeepers, we really were indoctrinated to a large extent.'"

Musk's political coming of age during the pre-social media era remains much of a mystery. But then his profile rose with the sale of his company X.com, a competitor to PayPal co-founded by Musk, and his subsequent takeover of Tesla as owner after joining founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning with a $6.5 million investment in 2004.

Musk's politics pre-Trump

Musk has long argued for small government and advocated for laissez-faire economic policy, calling the US government the "ultimate corporation" at a CEO summit in December 2020. In terms of donations, he's been in a relative holding pattern from his early years in Silicon Valley up to the present, donating moderate sums of money to politicians from both parties. 

"I get involved in politics as little as possible," Musk said at a 2015 Vanity Fair event, adding that, "There's some amount I have to get involved in," due to his business interests. 

He donated $2,000 each to former President George W. Bush and his 2004 Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State John Kerry. Musk also donated to California Democrats up and down the ballot, but still gave the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) $25,000 ahead of the 2006 midterms.

Another example of Musk hedging his donations came in the buildup to the 2008 presidential primaries, where he contributed to both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in their contentious race.

Musk didn't donate to either Clinton or Trump during the 2016 cycle.

The billionaire also started out as a heavy Trump skeptic, saying in October 2015 that it would be "embarrassing" if Trump won the GOP nomination, much less the presidency.

"I don't really have strong feelings except that hopefully Trump doesn't get the nomination of the Republican party, because I think that's, yeah … that wouldn't be good," Musk said at the Vanity Fair event. "I think at most he would get the Republican nomination, but I think that would still be a bit embarrassing."

But more recently, Musk has taken a different approach to the Trump-dominated GOP. His latest donations have all been to Republican candidates and causes, with Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware being the last Democrat to receive any Musk donations back in 2020.

Musk's politics during Trump's term

Starting in 2017, Musk's donations began to skew Republican, with the billionaire spending nearly seven times more on GOP campaigns than Democratic ones. He also accepted positions on two of Trump's White House councils and tweeted his support of Rex Tillerson's nomination as Secretary of State.

While Musk previously said he supported Hillary Clinton's campaign promises on the environment and climate change, he defended his decision to attend Trump's business council meetings so he could raise the issue along with the January 2017 travel ban affecting Muslim-majority countries. He then stepped down from the councils in June 2017, citing Trump's decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord.

"Climate change is real," Musk tweeted. "Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world."

Musk largely stopped mentioning Trump from that point until much later in his presidency, when Trump attended a SpaceX launch for NASA in May 2020.

Musk during Biden's presidency

In the last few years, Musk's flirtations with the Trump-led GOP have been ramping up.

In mid-2022, Musk said he voted for a Republican candidate for the first time in a Texas special election, adding that he expected to see a "massive red wave" in the year's midterms. Musk's Texas voter registration does not show party affiliation, but he's argued on X that the Democratic Party has drifted further from the center than the GOP.

In the closest thing Musk has offered to a 2024 endorsement, he tweeted in June 2022 that he was leaning toward supporting Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. DeSantis, who has since dropped out of the race, joked that he welcomed support from "African Americans," referencing Musk being South African.

Musk also said in July 2022 that Trump shouldn't run for president again and instead just "sail into the sunset."

But the billionaire has since changed his tune. 

After taking control of Twitter, now X, at the end of 2022, Musk reinstated Trump's account on the platform. Musk called Trump's expulsion from the platform following the January 6 riots a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme."

Though Musk has not outright endorsed Trump for president, he appears to be getting close. Musk has repeatedly criticized Biden, calling the president a "damp sock puppet" last year and hosting an "anti-Biden brain trust" meeting with Republican billionaires this April. 

Musk also recently had breakfast with Trump, along with Nelson Peltz, where the trio griped about voter fraud and Biden's performance. 

And, after Trump's felony conviction last month, Musk went to bat for the MAGA leader. 

"Indeed, great damage was done today to the public's faith in the American legal system," Musk wrote in a post on X.

"If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter — motivated by politics, rather than justice — then anyone is at risk of a similar fate," Musk added, echoing Trump's own narrative that the conviction was an act of political persecution.

Trump has even been reportedly chatting up Musk about an advisory role in his cabinet if he wins this November. And that's not the extent of the pair's burgeoning chumminess — Musk said earlier this month that the former president sometimes calls him on the phone out of the blue. 

While Musk has been more bullish lately about support for the GOP, his history of donations and past comments show that he has tended to position himself wherever he thinks power and influence are heading.

Musk donated 'sizable amount' to a pro-Trump super PAC, report says

Musk has yet to endorse a US presidential candidate for the 2024 election, but a Bloomberg report said he's leaning away from Democrats.

Sources told the outlet that Musk donated a "sizable amount" to America PAC, a political action committee focused on electing Donald Trump. The exact amount is unclear, but America PAC must disclose its list of donors on July 15, according to the outlet.

Musk had said in March on social media that he wasn't donating money to either presidential candidate.

The report of his super PAC donation came two weeks after Biden faced Trump in the first presidential debate of the season. Biden's performance was widely criticized, prompting some top Democratic donors and party members to call for his exit.

Biden has recently attempted to rebuild standing with voters — including an interview with ABC News and a press conference — but is struggling to reassure them.

Musk, meanwhile, appeared amused by Biden's recent gaffes and mocked him on X.

Biden misspoke during his press conference while discussing Vice President Kamala Harris. He said, "I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president."

"This is real!!??" Musk wrote on X.

In separate X posts, he wrote that "reality is beyond parody" and that "the most entertaining outcome is the most likely."