The Republican candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election, Donald Trump, has hailed his loyal supporter and tech billionaire Elon Musk, referring to him as a “super genius.”
Trump told his supporters on Wednesday that Musk’s Starlink satellite service helped save “a lot of lives” during Hurricane Helene, which devastated the southeastern United States in October.
“I said Elon they need it badly in North Carolina. Can you get it? He had that there so fast, it was incredible. It saved a lot of lives. They saved a lot of lives,” Trump said.
Trump also described Musk as “a character, he’s a special guy, he’s a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses, we don’t have that many of them.”
In October, when Trump told reporters he asked for the communications access, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had already announced that 40 Starlink satellite systems were in place, with an additional 140 on the way.
Musk’s Starlink is a government contractor; Musk has been an ardent supporter of Trump’s campaign, even with his finances to get the former president back to the White House.