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Elon Musk says the Trump assassination attempt is making him want to build a flying metal suit of armor

A composite image of Donald Trump, left, with two streaks of blood on his face after a shooting at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally. On the right, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, wearing black clothes and looking up.
Elon Musk has not only declared his endorsement for Donald Trump, but he's also discussing his own security. Evan Vucci/AP; Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
  • Former US President Donald Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
  • The incident prompted Elon Musk to discuss his own security protocols.
  • Musk gave a full-throated endorsement of the presumptive GOP nominee after the shooting.
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The shooting in Pennsylvania that left former President Donald Trump bleeding from the ear is apparently making Elon Musk think more about his own security protocols.

"You better beef up your security too @elonmusk," an X user called Whole Mars Catalog tweeted at Musk on Saturday night after the shooting.

"Maybe it's time to build that flying metal suit of armor," Musk replied.

Ian Miles Cheong, a Musk friend and common fixture on X, also asked Musk to "triple" his protection, writing on X: "If they can come for Trump they will also come for you."

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"Dangerous times ahead," Musk wrote in response to Cheong. "Two people (separate occasions) have already tried to kill me in the past 8 months. They were arrested with guns about 20 mins drive from Tesla HQ in Texas."

Videos taken at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally showed Trump speaking before gunshot noises rang out. The former president was then seen ducking while agents ran to cover him.

Trump was then seen standing up and defiantly raising a fist — with streaks of blood on his face.

The FBI has now named the 20-year-old suspect in the assassination attempt, who was killed at the scene, and an active investigation is ongoing.

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Musk, for his part, has stopped sitting on the fence over his support for Trump, giving a full-throated endorsement of the presumptive GOP nominee after the shooting.

"I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery," Musk wrote on X.

Musk has also donated an undisclosed amount of money to America PAC, a super PAC working to elect Trump in 2024, sources familiar with the donation told Bloomberg on Saturday.

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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The billionaire previously said on X that he had no plans to donate to any US presidential candidate.

Following the shooting, Musk launched into a reply spree on posts criticizing the Secret Service over the incident.

"Extreme incompetence or it was deliberate. Either way, the SS leadership must resign," Musk wrote on X on Saturday night.

On Sunday, Musk said he'd long held sympathies for Trump.

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The mercurial billionaire said he was present at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in 2011, when President Barack Obama roasted Trump for questioning his citizenship status — a night some have argued fueled Trump's desire to run for president.

"At the time, I thought it seemed messed up to be picking on someone in the audience so meanly," Musk said in an X post.

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

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