Elon Musk Trump Vibes
Over the past few weeks, Elon Musk has been sending major Donald Trump vibes. He has tried to renege on a deal, in the same way Trump screwed over contractors for decades. He has started a “fake news” style crusade against the “far left.” And most recently, he has been accused of sexual harassment. Like Trump, he has denied it, doubled-down by going after the accuser, and called it a “politically motivated hit piece.”
Elon even has his own legion of MAGA-like followers. They’re basically a bro army of Elon lovers who treat him as a messianic cult leader who is the only person capable of guiding humanity into the 21st century. Much like the way MAGA followers see Trump as America’s only solution.
Post anything remotely negative on Elon’s Reddit page. I dare you. The bro army will swarm like raging hornets.
So what happened to the CEO with bold ideas who was focused on pushing the human race forward? Instead of directing all of his efforts on getting us to Mars or completely off gasoline, he has willingly jumped into the political mud.
Nobody asked Elon to serve as the free speech champion of the world. That is, “free speech” according to Elon.
Nobody forced him to suddenly become political, despite years of relative neutrality, even amidst the occasional outburst.
So why is Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, having a Kanye West like meltdown while giving Donald Trump vibes?
For the same reason Trump acts the way he does. To pad his pockets and expand his power.
Elon’s political tweets were too timely and Trumpian
Check the timestamps between Elon Musk suddenly tweeting how “Political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months” and the publication of the Business Insider story accusing him of sexual harassment. Here’s the timeline:
- May 18th: Elon tweeted: “Political attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months.”
- May 18th: Elon tweeted: “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.”
- May 19th: Business Insider published its article about Elon Musk exposing himself to a flight attendant on his private jet, silencing her in exchange for $250,000, and even offering to buy her a horse.
- May 19th: Elon tweeted: “Judging by the relentless hate stream from the far left, this tweet was spot on.”
Anyone who says that Elon’s tweets on May 18th were anything but pre-textual is willfully blind. Business Insider described how they gave Elon multiple opportunities to respond to correct the record, if it was in fact a “politically motivated hit piece” as he described. He never responded. SpaceX, who allegedly paid the flight attendant for her silence, stated that they would not comment on non-disclosure agreements. Note they never said a non-disclosure agreement did not exist.
Elon likely asked himself, “How can I publicly survive #MeToo scrutiny?”
What better role model than Donald Trump. There are at least 26 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct of varying degrees since the 1970s. Yet he still was elected President and controls much of the Republican Party today.
So Elon did the most Trumpian act possible. Plant the pretext seed that the “left” was in an outrage over his Twitter purchase and would be orchestrating a “dirty tricks campaign” against him. That way, when the negative news broke, he was already ahead of it. He knew Business Insider was planning to publish the piece because they had been in talks with him.
When the story broke, he then tried to make himself sound like a genius, even highlighting how his previous tweet was spot on. It was a clear attempt to bolster his standing while undermining the accuser.
I highlighted the story in a TikTok and was immediately met with scorn from Elon’s bro army. Most made arguments that it was the standard “leftist playbook.” Almost everyone who commented defended Elon.
Admittedly, this does seem standard for an “enemy” of the left. From Clarence Thomas to Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump, conservative leaders have faced numerous allegations of this nature over the years. But there is a big difference between them and Elon.
Elon Musk has never been a conservative political figure. He morphed himself into one via Twitter a week ago. That evidence alone suggests only one thing: he was planning this all along. He knew based on recent history that if any group would defend and support him against what could be construed as a “liberal attack”, it would be hardcore Republicans. And let’s be honest: primarily white conservative men.
Elon became political to protect Elon.
Twitter was never about “free speech” for Elon
As I wrote previously:
The future for Elon Musk and Twitter may be uncertain, even if he acquires it, but we should not lose sight of the fact he’s not doing this for charity. He’s doing this for Elon.
No billionaire offers to buy a company with an abysmal track record of generating revenue (let alone profit) for a purely altruistic and noble cause. They only buy something that will help them. Most often, that’s economically. They see an opportunity where an asset is undervalued and they strike.
In other cases, an acquisition may help them in other ways. Whether that’s in supporting their other businesses, their own public image, or in acquiring that elusive asset that sometimes money cannot buy — power.
Yes, Elon has a history of self-dealing with his companies. You are talking to a former shareholder of SolarCity here. He may want to use Twitter to bolster his other companies like Tesla and SpaceX, both of which depend on popular support and government contracts and subsidies. But it’s more likely he wants Twitter because it gives him control of the virtual town square.
This control would give him power far beyond what he has today as the CEO of multiple companies. It would allow him to lobby, market his brand, and organize his legion of Elon bros in any way he chooses. With basically no repercussions. Twitter would not be able to control him because he would control Twitter.
While it’s nice to think Elon wants to protect and promote free speech for everyone, in reality it’s more about protecting and promoting free speech that’s important to Elon.
Elon’s version of election fraud is spam bots
Imagine Trump entering into a deal he grew to dislike. What would he do?
Construct an “out.” A boogeyman. A conspiracy theory. A fake fraud.
Trump did this in business. Trump did this in politics, most recently with his tales about election fraud in the 2022 midterm primaries.
It’s standard Trumpian practice when he finds himself losing power or in a disadvantageous position.
Elon Musk is giving off Trump vibes in the Twitter deal because he finds himself in this disadvantageous position. Anyone following the stock market recently knows what a bloodbath it has been over the past few weeks. Twitter has not escaped harm. Its price has plummeted from around the $54.20 per share that Elon had to agreed to buy it at to close at around $38 per share on Friday, May 20th.
It does not take a financial wizard to see that Elon is paying way over Twitter’s current valuation, and therefore getting a bad deal.
So what did Elon do? Conjure up some Trump vibes and construct a boogeyman.
Spam bots.
For a more detailed breakdown of Elon’s futile efforts here in an actual court of law, check out what Bloomberg’s Matt Levine had to say.
Basically, Elon is alleging that more than 5% of Twitter users are fake. He thinks this will give him an out on the deal (or at least implies that point). He’s wrong. It won’t.
Twitter has disclosed this point for years in its securities filings. It has also caveated the language to say that their understanding of how many spam bots are present is an estimate based on reasonable efforts and diligence.
If this was such an issue for Elon, why did he not conduct due diligence around it before agreeing to buy Twitter?
Because it wasn’t an issue for him. In fact, it was the reason why he wanted to buy Twitter in the first place! “Defeating spam bots!” Those are Elon’s words, not mine.
So the next time you hear his words, ask yourself: “Is Elon giving off Trump vibes, or is he actually being genuine?”
Your answer will be the former far more often than the latter.
0 Comments