Elon Musk Says He Supports 2020 White House Hopeful Andrew Yang

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk supports Andrew Yang, the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer said in a tweet that could give the tech entrepreneur’s 2020 White House bid a boost.

Musk, who often interacts with some of his almost 28 million followers on Twitter, made the declaration while responding to political commentator Dan Carlin, who uses the handle @HardcoreHistory. Carlin’s tweet had cited Yang’s earlier tweet on leadership.

Musk said in a separate tweet that universal basic income, an idea Yang supports, is “obviously needed.”

The CEO jokingly added that Yang would be the first “openly goth” U.S. president. Yang told Jezebel in April he wanted to be America’s first ex-goth president. The comments came after Yang tweeted some pictures of his younger self and revealed his favorite bands were The Smiths and The Cure.

Yang has qualified for the next round of presidential primary debates to be held next month in Houston, the ninth Democrat to do so.

“The country heard my message and is ready to talk about real solutions to gun violence, the new realities of the American economy, and how we measure our health and success as a nation,” Yang said in a statement on Thursday. “I’m excited to have those conversations in Houston and throughout the 2020 election.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Jose Valero in New York at mvalero3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Polina Noskova at pnoskova@bloomberg.net, Virginia Van Natta, Ros Krasny

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