Elon Musk reacts to Biden dropping out: 'My smartest friends' are 'excited about Trump'

• The end of Joe Biden's reelection bid prompted a reaction from Elon Musk, who backs Donald Trump.

• Musk argued tech-industry loyalty was shifting to Republicans, citing individual freedom and merit.

• Top Silicon Valley investors, including Ben Horowitz and Peter Thiel, are also backing Trump.

Just minutes after US President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his campaign for reelection, Elon Musk on Sunday said that his Silicon Valley friends had already moved on to the Republican Party.

"My smartest friends, including those living in the San Francisco Bay Area who have been lifelong Dems, are excited about Trump/Vance," Musk posted on X.

Musk, one of the wealthiest and most vocal billionaires in Silicon Valley, said he "fully" endorsed Donald Trump last Saturday, just minutes after a gunman opened fire at the former president's campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Now, Musk suggests the tech industry's allegiances aren't just shifting between presidential candidates. He said there's a reversal in which political party best represented the country's spirit.

"I believe in an America that maximizes individual freedom and merit," he wrote. "That used to be the Democratic Party, but now the pendulum has swung to the Republican Party."

Several top Silicon Valley investors have begun to rally around Trump in recent months. Last week, Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, the founders of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, announced on "The Little Tech Agenda" podcast that they'd put millions behind Trump. "Sorry, Mom, I know you're going to be mad at me for this, but like, we had to do it," Horowitz said.

Meanwhile, established conservatives including the PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and the Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale have already vocalized support for the former president. Support for Trump in Silicon Valley could also be bolstered by the announcement of his running mate, JD Vance, who began his career in venture capital working for Thiel's Mithril Capital and the Steve Case-backed Revolution before becoming the senator of Ohio.

Musk, meanwhile, is already patting himself on the back for owning a platform that Biden used to share the statement announcing the end of his campaign. "White House aides learned Biden was dropping out by reading X," he touted a little over an hour after Biden's announcement.

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