Photo: Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) via Truth Social
There was a time when both Elon Musk and Donald Trump were both fighting for the title of Twitter's Greatest of All Time (GOAT), but then one got banned for spreading misinformation, leaving the other with a clear run to the prize.
Not the type to remain silent for too long - or use Instagram, for obvious photogenic reasons - Trump came up with a social platform of his own. He called it "Truth Social" and, to be perfectly honest, I can't tell you too much about it because I'm not a member yet. And by "yet" I mean "never".
This separation, together with Mr. Trump being replaced by Joe Biden at the White House, which severely reduced people's interest in what he had to say, meant the millionaire-billionaire pair had few reasons and opportunities to interact with each other. Well, now that Musk has found himself in a bit of potential trouble with as the Twitter deal backfired, Trump seems to have smelt blood and went straight for the jugular.
The former president called Musk a "bullshit artist" at a public appearance in Alaska last weekend, referring to the way the world's wealthiest man dealt with the process of buying Twitter. It seems like the comment wasn't that well received by Musk who, instead of doing the grown up thing of simply ignoring it, decided to fight back.
The Tesla CEO posted a tweet on Monday night that, ironically enough, called for people to stop giving Trump the attention he so desperately seeks. "I don’t hate the man," Musk's tweet read, "but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack—don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency.”
Musk then went on and elaborated on that latter point stressing out that Trump would simply be too old for a second mandate as president. “Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” he wrote. “If [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis runs against Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will easily win—he doesn’t even need to campaign.”
So far, things had been kept pretty civil. Sure, calling Musk a fraud over his Twitter takeover debacle isn't the best ice-breaker if you want to stay on decent terms with the other person - and it's not very clever either considering it now makes the subject of an ongoing trial - but it's not something Musk couldn't read online thousands of times each day.
Well, it looks like Trump's gloves fell off yesterday when he responded to Musk's latest salvo through a post on his own platform. Next to a predictably awkward picture showing Trump sat at his desk in the Oval Office and Musk sitting upright next to him, like a glorified waiter, the former president did his best to belittle the CEO of Tesla and show who was - and presumably still is - boss.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless," Trump recalled, "and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”
Yes, "Wait, what???" is a perfectly legitimate reaction. There's a lot to take in here. First, Trump is actually talking about the possibility of making someone drop to their knees in front of him just because he was the President of the United States of America. The power trip vibes here are astounding and I really think whoever wrote this didn't really think it through. Yes, the three burns on Elon Musk's businesses are pretty funny (they could have added something about the tunnels, I guess, but with Musk owning so many companies, they had to stop somewhere), but if you think about it, this is basically an admission of guilt.
Trump claims Musk asked for subsidies for his "electric cars that don’t drive long enough", "driverless cars that crash", and "rocketships to nowhere", and even though he thought these were all bad businesses, he agreed. And what's his regret now? That he gave the green light? Nope. It's that he didn't make the (now) world's wealthiest person beg for it.
At this point you're probably asking yourself: "what's next?". You're not alone, and the online space is already thriving with theories. One claims the two are actually in cahoots and this is merely done to boost Trump's image ahead of his presidency campaign. Well, if Musk was merely helping Trump gain some much-needed spotlight, he didn't need to go through all this trouble.
He didn't even have to log in on Twitter at all. All he had to do was to create an account on Trump's Truth Social and post something dumb and Musk-like such as "hello. Lol" or "Boo." Not only would that help Trump greatly, but it would also further irritate the people over at Twitter, presumably. Two birds with one stone.
It appears as though Musk might be the first to slowly back out of it. He hasn't offered any response yet and his reply to someone who brought he post to his attention (@ashleevance on Twitter) was a simple and benign "Lmaooo". Could this be the end? Is this one of those boss fights with an excellent build up but a lame conclusion? Was I too hasty to buy all the shares for popcorn manufacturers I could find? Well, considering Musk has bigger problems on his hands now, he might beat an uncharacteristic retreat. The only thing standing in the way of him making the smart decision? The only thing larger than his wealth: his ego.
This separation, together with Mr. Trump being replaced by Joe Biden at the White House, which severely reduced people's interest in what he had to say, meant the millionaire-billionaire pair had few reasons and opportunities to interact with each other. Well, now that Musk has found himself in a bit of potential trouble with as the Twitter deal backfired, Trump seems to have smelt blood and went straight for the jugular.
The former president called Musk a "bullshit artist" at a public appearance in Alaska last weekend, referring to the way the world's wealthiest man dealt with the process of buying Twitter. It seems like the comment wasn't that well received by Musk who, instead of doing the grown up thing of simply ignoring it, decided to fight back.
The Tesla CEO posted a tweet on Monday night that, ironically enough, called for people to stop giving Trump the attention he so desperately seeks. "I don’t hate the man," Musk's tweet read, "but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack—don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency.”
Musk then went on and elaborated on that latter point stressing out that Trump would simply be too old for a second mandate as president. “Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” he wrote. “If [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis runs against Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will easily win—he doesn’t even need to campaign.”
So far, things had been kept pretty civil. Sure, calling Musk a fraud over his Twitter takeover debacle isn't the best ice-breaker if you want to stay on decent terms with the other person - and it's not very clever either considering it now makes the subject of an ongoing trial - but it's not something Musk couldn't read online thousands of times each day.
Well, it looks like Trump's gloves fell off yesterday when he responded to Musk's latest salvo through a post on his own platform. Next to a predictably awkward picture showing Trump sat at his desk in the Oval Office and Musk sitting upright next to him, like a glorified waiter, the former president did his best to belittle the CEO of Tesla and show who was - and presumably still is - boss.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless," Trump recalled, "and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”
Yes, "Wait, what???" is a perfectly legitimate reaction. There's a lot to take in here. First, Trump is actually talking about the possibility of making someone drop to their knees in front of him just because he was the President of the United States of America. The power trip vibes here are astounding and I really think whoever wrote this didn't really think it through. Yes, the three burns on Elon Musk's businesses are pretty funny (they could have added something about the tunnels, I guess, but with Musk owning so many companies, they had to stop somewhere), but if you think about it, this is basically an admission of guilt.
Trump claims Musk asked for subsidies for his "electric cars that don’t drive long enough", "driverless cars that crash", and "rocketships to nowhere", and even though he thought these were all bad businesses, he agreed. And what's his regret now? That he gave the green light? Nope. It's that he didn't make the (now) world's wealthiest person beg for it.
At this point you're probably asking yourself: "what's next?". You're not alone, and the online space is already thriving with theories. One claims the two are actually in cahoots and this is merely done to boost Trump's image ahead of his presidency campaign. Well, if Musk was merely helping Trump gain some much-needed spotlight, he didn't need to go through all this trouble.
He didn't even have to log in on Twitter at all. All he had to do was to create an account on Trump's Truth Social and post something dumb and Musk-like such as "hello. Lol" or "Boo." Not only would that help Trump greatly, but it would also further irritate the people over at Twitter, presumably. Two birds with one stone.
It appears as though Musk might be the first to slowly back out of it. He hasn't offered any response yet and his reply to someone who brought he post to his attention (@ashleevance on Twitter) was a simple and benign "Lmaooo". Could this be the end? Is this one of those boss fights with an excellent build up but a lame conclusion? Was I too hasty to buy all the shares for popcorn manufacturers I could find? Well, considering Musk has bigger problems on his hands now, he might beat an uncharacteristic retreat. The only thing standing in the way of him making the smart decision? The only thing larger than his wealth: his ego.
Lmaooo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022
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