Elon Musk is playing a starring role in the presidential election: the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has donated almost $75 million to
Trump’s political organization America PAC, and he has made a lot of statements not only in his X account but even in Trump’s rallies.

But the last one, generates a lot of concerns not only in voters but in authorities. Speaking in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he announced he would randomly distribute cash awards to voters. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Musk announced on Saturday night that he would give $1 million ‘randomly’ once a day to a registered Pennsylvania voter who has signed a conservative petition put together by his super PAC. The sweepstakes is part of Mr. Musk’s push to register voters in the battleground state before a Monday deadline.”

The announcement didn’t sound good at the ears of the Pennsylvania Governor, Mark Shapiro who said in an interview at the NBC News Channel: “I think there are real questions with how he’s spending money in this race and the dark money is flowing (...). That is deeply concerning. Musk obviously has a right to be able to express his views he has made it very very clear that he supports Donald Trump (...). But when you start flowing this kind of money in the politics (...) I think it’s something that law enforcement could take a look at.”  

This is another move to convince citizens to register and vote for Trump. There is not a big difference between the two candidates, so they and their campaigns are trying to conquer the popular will in swing states, such as Pennsylvania.

Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, is one of the Biden administration's fiercest critics and has emerged as a loud voice in US politics since taking over Twitter, now known as X.

The weekend journey

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump invited star power to the campaign trail Saturday, as they took shots at each other's endurance and urged early voting in battleground states key to the ever-tightening US presidential race.

At rallies in Detroit and Atlanta Harris brought out pop stars Lizzo and Usher respectively to warm up her crowds, while painting her rival Trump as exhausted and unhinged.

The Republican running for a second go in the White House countered those accusations with a marathon speech in Pennsylvania, as billionaire Elon Musk campaigned for him elsewhere in the state.

Both candidates are fighting on every front to seal up voters' support in a race that polls suggest is effectively tied with fewer than three weeks to Election Day.

Harris told voters in Detroit that her opponent's platform is "self-consuming" while repeating vows to invest in the working and middle classes.

"We stand for the idea that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it's on who you lift up," said Harris.

Later in Atlanta Harris, who turns 60 on Sunday, accused the 78-year-old Trump of "ducking debates and canceling interviews because of exhaustion."

"When he does answer a question or speak at a rally -- have you noticed he tends to go off script and ramble, and generally, for the life of him, cannot finish a thought?" she said.

"He's called it the weave. But we here we will call it nonsense."

'Grandpa'

Trump began his more than 90-minute rally with a lengthy monologue on the late golfer Arnold Palmer, for whom the regional airport in Latrobe, where the Republican appeared, is named.

He went so far as to praise Palmer's genitalia.

"When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there, they said, 'Oh my God. That's unbelievable,'" Trump said with a laugh. "I had to say it."

He then launched into his routine, meandering speech that includes attacking migrants, personally denigrating Harris and repeating false claims about the 2020 election.

But his was a show of onstage endurance, which also included a number of guests and screenings of his filmed campaign ads.

Shortly after recalling his own expensive education at the private Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, Trump vied to appeal to working class voters by bringing a parade of steel workers in hard hats onstage.

He also underscored the importance of the eastern US state's electoral college delegates to the overall election: "If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole damn thing."

At rally in Las Vegas, former US President Barack Obama took aim at Trump, comparing him to a grandfather whose bizarre behavior would spark worry after his rambling speeches and a strange dance party.

"So you would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this. You would,... right? You'd like, call up your brother,... be like, have you seen grandpa lately? What we gonna do?

"But this is coming from somebody who wants unchecked power, wants the most powerful office on Earth, with the nuclear codes and all that," said Obama.

Earlier in the day the pop star Lizzo noted that "whether you're a Democrat or Republican or neither, you deserve a president who listens when you speak."

"You deserve a president who respects when you protest. You deserve a president who understands that their job is to be a public servant," she said before emphasizing that Harris offers just that.

'About damn time'

Lizzo -- who sported a suffragette-white pantsuit as she addressed the crowd in Motor City -- also drew cheers when urging listeners that America was more than ready for its first woman president, dropping a reference to her own hit song: "It's about damn time!"

One of Atlanta's major stars, Usher, told voters there that "I'm counting on you" to get Harris's "campaign across the finish line" in Georgia.

Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in pivotal battleground states where early voting is already underway.

With information of AFP by Jim WATSON, with Maggy Donaldson in New York