Concern over report of secret Putin talks as Elon Musk goes all-in for Trump

Billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and an avid supporter of Donald Trump, was plunged into new controversy on Friday after a report that he is in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Wall Street Journal story, which has been denied by the Kremlin, comes just days after the US Justice Department sent a letter to Musk’s America PAC warning that its US$1 million giveaways to registered voters may violate federal law.

Nasa head Bill Nelson said the report should be investigated, and the allegations – if true – “would be concerning” for a number of US agencies, Politico reported on Friday. Nelson was referring in particular to his own agency, as well as the US Department of Defence and some intelligence agencies.

Musk, 53, the chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla and the owner of X, formerly Twitter, has thrown his millions, time and outsize influence into sending former Republican US president Trump back to the White House since endorsing him in July.

Musk has reportedly donated US$118 million to his personal pro-Trump political action committee, appeared on stage with the Republican presidential candidate at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and hosted a series of town halls on his own in the battleground state seen as critical in the November election.

Musk, who supported Barack Obama but has become increasingly conservative in recent years, peppers his more than 202 million followers on X daily with a stream of political messages championing Trump and denigrating his opponent, Democratic US Vice-President Kamala Harris.