Musk has increasingly linked himself with the Trump campaign with get-out-the-vote efforts and appearances at campaign events. Musk’s admiration of former President Donald Trump seemed to begin after the Republican’s July 13 assassination attempt.

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk said minutes after Trump’s assassination attempt. He later posted the picture of Trump raising his fist, surrounded by Secret Service agents, with blood dripping off his ear.

Since then, Musk has steadily embraced the Republican presidential candidate. He founded America PAC, which he later funded with $75 million of his own money to support Trump. Musk posted several times on his social media platform, X, about a week after Trump’s assassination attempt with the words “Trump/Vance LFG!!” — demonstrating his clear enthusiasm for the ticket.

Even as Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Musk retained his support for Trump despite an invigorated Democratic base.

“Trump will save democracy and America,” he said in an Aug. 26 post. “Mark my words. Kamala/Harris would be a disaster.”

Then Musk’s support for Trump took a more physical shape in October.

He appeared at the Republican’s second rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 6, with clear homages to the former president’s assassination attempt around the venue. Musk wore a dark “Make America Great Again” hat and spoke onstage alongside Trump.

“We had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist-pumping after getting shot,” Musk said. “America is the home of the brave, and there’s no truer test than courage under fire.”

Before Trump’s first assassination attempt, there were rumors Musk could join Trump’s White House as an adviser for the former president, with little doubt that the Tesla CEO would shed influence on the administration’s handling of big business, space, and other topics.

Musk’s direct involvement with a potential Trump administration has escalated since then. Trump now says he will make Musk the head of a “government efficiency commission” with an aim to further cut government spending.

That could be part of why Musk is investing into Trump. Or it could be to add to the billions of government contracts that his companies already have.

In a recent controversial effort, Musk’s America PAC revealed a $1 million giveaway each day to Nov. 5 to any swing-state resident who signs a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. Several people have already won. The petition also offers a much smaller cash incentive to each registered swing-state voter who signs and cash for referring a registered voter to sign.

“The only thing we ask for the million dollars is that you be a spokesperson for the petition, and that’s it, really,” Musk said.

Musk has faced fire from those who believe the promotion is illegal. “I believe [Elon] Musk’s offer is likely illegal,” Paul Schiff Berman, the Walter S. Cox professor of law at George Washington University, told the BBC. He believes it violates a section of election law prohibiting paying voters to register.

Former Federal Election Commission Chairman Brad Smith told the New York Times he believed it fell in a “gray area.”

Outside of Musk’s promotion, America PAC has boosted the Trump campaign’s ground game in swing states through a massive cash infusion into door-knocking and get-out-the-vote initiatives. Musk himself has prioritized Pennsylvania, appearing with Senate candidate Dave McCormick.

There are signs Musk’s effort isn’t perfect: The organization continues to look for workers with days until the election, and there have been allegations some of America PAC’s door-knocking statistics have been inflated.

“It’s not 100% as good, probably, as they would like it to be or we would like it to be — but it’s a lot of added coverage regardless,” one senior Trump campaign aide told the Christian Science Monitor. “Any time you’re hiring lots of people [quickly] and covering lots of ground, you’re going to have a little bit of garbage in there, a little bit of bad performance. But it’s at the margins.”

If those efforts fail and Trump doesn’t win, Musk has suggested he will face consequences.

“If he loses, I’m f***ed,” Musk told Tucker Carlson in an interview broadcast on X. 

“How long do you think my prison sentence is going to be?” he said. “Will I see my children? I don’t know.”