As Donald Trump gets closer and closer to winning the US presidential election, a man stands by his side and cheers him on. Elon Musk became one of Trump's star campaigners both offline and online shortly after a failed assassination attempt against the former US president during a rally, but the two did not always see eye to eye.

In fact, Elon Musk supported Donald Trump's rivals Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Elon Musk and Joe Biden: What happened?

Musk, who had previously described himself as “half Democrat, half Republican,” began attacking US President Joe Biden and his administration over their policies shortly after his election.

The relationship deteriorated further in 2021 when he complained on Twitter, now X, that his company Tesla was not invited to the White House summit on the future of electric cars, despite selling 74% of all electric cars in the country.

In September 2021, after the launch of all-civilian space travel, Musk criticized Biden when asked why he had not yet congratulated SpaceX. “He’s still sleeping,” Musk said in a mocking post on X.

Musk also criticized Biden's support of workers' unions, saying he was unable to “accomplish much.”

In 2022, he said Musk sharply criticized the Democratic Party, calling it a “party of division and hate” and announced that he would switch to the Republican side. But he remained critical of the Republican Party's biggest candidate – Donald Trump.

(Also read: Where is Joe Biden now? This is how the US President spent election night)

From critic to confidant: Musk and Trump

Before Donald Trump was elected to power in 2016, Musk criticized the Republican, saying he wasn't right for the job. “It’s a little clearer to me that he’s probably not the right guy. “He doesn’t seem to have the kind of character that reflects well on the United States,” he said.

In 2022, he opined that Trump should give up his re-election bid: “I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail off into the sunset.”

He said Trump's presidency would be “too much drama.” “Do we really want a bull in a china shop every day?” he had said.

However, the relationship between the two became warmer after Musk bought Twitter and reinstated the former president's account. For the next two years, Musk was unable to support Trump, calling the decision a “difficult decision.” But that changed in the run-up to this year's election, when Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

“I fully support President Trump and hope for his speedy recovery,” he wrote in a post on him. Wearing a black “Make America Great Again” cap, he warned that if Trump lost, it could be the last election and voting for him was crucial to saving American democracy.

He also claimed that if Kamala Harris won, she would take out X and throw him in jail for supporting Trump and his campaign. Today on X, Musk declared Trump the winner of the 2024 presidential election. “The American people gave Donald Trump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” he wrote.