Donald Trump's cosy bond with Elon Musk - cuddlefest to White House promise

Two of the most controversial and powerful people in the world have formed a friendship - and it's a huge concern to many.

Donald Trump, who is on course to return as American President, has had the support of Tesla billionaire and Twitter tycoon Elon Musk, who has made bizarre appearances at Republican rallies in recent months. The duo have been pictured together smiling, embracing and chatting, and Musk has proudly worn a 'Make American Great Again' hat.

This morning, in a speech where he hastily declared 'magnificent' victory over Kamala Harris, Trump was asked about Musk by his crowd and told supporters: "We have a new star; a star is born. He's an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight. You know, he spent two weeks in Philadelphia, in different parts of Pennsylvania, campaigning."

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Musk has been a key figure in the election campaign and has also been busy sharing far-right conspiracy theories online. Pictures from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last night show the entrepreneur-turned-politician locked in conversation with the divisive owner of X.

In an audio discussion on X, Musk said: "I'm headed to Florida, to Mar-a-Lago, and I'll be there with President Trump, and JD [Vance], and a bunch of other cool people. The Trump team, I think they're good people. But they're also just – they're fun. They've got a great sense of humour, they're making jokes. Trump actually has a quite a bit of self-deprecating humour."

The world's richest man donated roughly $75million (£58million) to American PAC, the political action committee he founded to support Trump's campaign. He has also been using his X posts to push voters to vote for Trump. Last month, he appeared at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania and said: "As you can see, I'm not just MAGA, I'm dark MAGA."

He has been an outspoken supporter of Trump, appearing at a number of rallies and even promising to hand out a $1million (£770,000) cheque each day to a registered voter in key swing states in the build-up to the election - which Pennsylvania officials have accused of being an illegal lottery scheme.

Lawyers for Musk and American PAC told Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta that the million-dollar prizes were not part of a lottery because "there is no prize to be won" as winners "are not chosen at random". They claimed the winners are picked based on their personal story. Musk could now face a civil lawsuit in a Pennsylvania state court.

Meanwhile, Trump has pledged to make America the "bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world" and vowed to give Musk a role in the White House - despite the Tesla owner saying in 2022 that "it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset".

Before that, Musk wasn't overly political, despite expressing support for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2018 and making financial contributions to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign, according to data from non-partisan research group Open Secrets.

If Musk was to join the White House administration, it would be bad news for the UK. In recent weeks, he's claimed the country is on course for civil war and launched a string of attacks on the British Government. It comes amid grim warnings that a second Trump term could be even more dangerous than the first and will have a chilling impact on world security.