Opinion: The end of the Trump-Musk bromance
Trump lashed out at Musk like a scorned lover, complaining to the crowd on Saturday night: « He told me he voted for me. » He also used the rally to taunt Musk for the apparent failure of his plan to buy Twitter, bragging that he predicted months ago that « Elon won’t buy Twitter, » cheerfully adding, « Where have you heard that before? »
For weeks, Musk has expressed concerns, without any apparent evidence, that there are more bots and spam accounts on the platform than Twitter has publicly disclosed.
You would have thought that Trump would have focused his attention on recent bombshells from the January 6 committee regarding his alleged efforts to nullify the 2020 election, or his alleged role in setting the stage for the storming of the US Capitol that day. -the.
Or that he might have been obsessed with the eight hours of testimony given to the committee on Friday by Pat Cipollone, his former White House lawyer. Or that he might even have been worried about developments in the Fulton County District Attorney’s criminal investigation into his interaction with Georgia state election officials after the 2020 vote.
Not so long ago, the Trump-Musk relationship was warm, with public displays of affection. In January 2020, Trump compared Musk to Thomas Edison, saying he was « one of our great geniuses…and we want to cherish those people. »
The cursed billionaires chatted on the phone in May 2020 during the Covid-19 crisis, bonding over their shared desire to end the shutdowns that saved lives in order to allow businesses to reopen. Then Trump threw caution to the wind when he tweeted his love for Musk’s idea of reopening his California Tesla factory despite Covid-19 restrictions. This prompted a smitten Musk to tweet in response, « Thank you! »
After that, we haven’t heard much about the pair. Maybe Trump was too busy lying about the 2020 election results and planning his efforts to overturn the vote.
But fast forward to early this year, and it looked like the two could rekindle their relationship. After announcing his intention to buy Twitter in April, Musk said the following month that if the deal went through, he would allow Trump to return to the social media platform, reversing the ban imposed after the attack. January 6. Musk said he thinks Twitter should be more « reluctant to take things down » and « very careful with permanent bans. » In May, he called Twitter’s decision to ban Trump in January 2021 a « mistake. »
In the weeks that followed, Musk took to Twitter to taunt liberals in a very Trump-inspired way. In May, he tweeted he had voted for the Democrats in the past because they represented « (mostly) the kindness party. » But he added: ‘(T)they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and I will vote Republican.’ Then, like Trump, he made himself a victim, writing in the same tweet, « Now watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold. » And he added a popcorn emoji for effect.
That same month, Musk stood up for the very wealthy — like himself and Trump — Tweeter, « Using the word ‘billionaire’ as a pejorative is morally wrong and stupid. » And in mid-June, Musk seemed ready to take his relationship with Trump to the next level, saying in a Tweeter that the ballot he cast for a GOP candidate to take an open congressional seat in Texas was the « first time I voted Republican. » He then predicted a « (m)assisive red wave in 2022 ».
But then Musk did something that, if it was a romantic comedy movie, would have had the entire audience gasp with the sudden realization that trouble is brewing.
Mercurial Musk tweeted last month that when it comes to the 2024 presidential race, he’s leaning towards supporting Florida’s GOP Governor Ron DeSantis — not Trump.
Meanwhile, the shy DeSantis replied that he was focused on his 2022 gubernatorial re-election campaign – but didn’t pretend to be uninterested in possible support from Musk.
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