Elon Musk suggested that fast food chain Chick-fil-A should be put in charge of the US’s southern border as he rambled for two-and-a-half hours at a town hall.
The billionaire appeared in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Saturday where he answered questions from the audience and went off on tangents at the America PAC campaign event in support of Donald Trump.
During the marathon discussion, Musk shared his “crazy idea” for handling immigration with the audience in the critical swing state.
“What if we gave our legal immigration job to Chick-fil-A? They are so efficient,” he said. “They make an amazing chicken sandwich, the chicken sandwiches are epic. And they make a zillion of them and they just get it done.”
The bizarre idea came in the midst of a nearly-three-hour-long town hall where the SpaceX CEO rambled and covered familiar topics, from colonizing Mars to voter fraud and the January 6 Capitol riots.
At one point, a first-time voter who asked Musk a question about Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election result was booed by the audience.
“I ask this is a first-time voter who wants to discern the truth,” he said. “What would you say to comfort the concerns of young voters like me, who are worried that voting for a second Trump presidency will lead to democratic backsliding?”
Musk, who appeared to struggle to answer the question initially, maintained that Trump called for “people to back down” on January 6 2021 and denied the former president incited violence.
He also repeated his claim that Kamala Harris is “a puppet.”
“I made a joke that was sort of misconstrued, that it was like, ‘Nobody even bothers to try to kill Kamala.’ That’s pointless. Why? They’ll just get another puppet,” he said. “Nobody even bothers. Nobody’s even tried to kill Biden.”
“They’ve tried to kill Trump, twice,” he added. “Trump is not beholden to anyone and that’s why the machine is trying to kill him.”
The day after the town hall, Musk joined other MAGA loyalists at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York, including Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, wrestler Hulk Hogan, and TV personality Dr Phil.
Speaking at the rally, Musk said that America would not only be great under Trump but it would reach heights never seen before as he promised to get the government “off people’s backs” and “out of their pocketbooks.”
“You guys are awesome, honestly,” Musk said, as the crowd chanted his name. “This is the kind of positive energy America is all about.”
Musk endorsed Trump for president earlier this year and since then, his support for the Republican candidate has been unwavering. He is now Trump’s second biggest financial backer, according to Forbes, donating almost $120m through his PAC.
Trump has already signaled he plans to give Musk a prominent role in his administration if he is reelected next week.
In remarks to the Economic Club of New York earlier in the campaign, Trump — “at the suggestion of Elon Musk” — proposed a “government efficiency commission” that would perform “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government.”
The commission will be “conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms,” if he is elected president, Trump said.
