Elon Musk reportedly makes surprise appearance during Trump-Zelenskyy call | Elon Musk

Elon Musk reportedly made a surprise guest appearance during a phone call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, cementing the Tesla CEO’s role as the country’s most influential citizen in January.

Musk was with Trump for about 25 minutes during the call, according to Axios, which first reported the conversation. Trump handed Musk the phone and Musk and Zelenskyy spoke briefly. During the phone call, Zelenskyy thanked Musk for the satellites he had supplied to Ukraine through his company Starlink, AFP said. Musk said he would continue to offer satellite internet access, the report said.

Musk, who campaigned vigorously for Trump, has a mixed record on issues related to Russia’s war against Ukraine. The billionaire initially provided internet connectivity in Ukraine for free via Starlink satellites, with the help of funding from several other entities, including the US government.

Zelensky’s call with Trump was reportedly reassuring to the Ukrainian president. Trump told Zelenskyy that he would continue to support Ukraine, although he did not go into details, according to Axios. In a statement, Zelenskyy said he praised Trump and his team for their successful campaign.

“We agreed to maintain a close dialogue and further our cooperation,” he tweeted. “Strong and steadfast American leadership is critical for the world and for a just peace.”

Musk’s words and actions have sometimes been ambivalent about support for Ukraine. According to a biography by Walter Isaacson, Musk later refused to activate the satellites over Crimea in response to an emergency request from Ukraine. Musk said the refusal was to prevent SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company, from becoming “complicit in a major act of war and escalation of conflict.”

Musk had also tweeted what he presented as a peace plan but what experts had described as pro-Kremlin talking points. Zelenskyy responded by posting a poll on X asking his followers which Musk they liked more: the one who supports Russia or Ukraine.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin since 2022. It’s unclear what the two discussed, but according to the Journal, Starlink has been a topic of conversation in at least one instance, and Putin asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Musk responded to a post on You might as well try ‘Elon is a Russian agent.’