Donald Trump skewers Elon Musk on Truth Social: why don’t the two figures get along?

Donald Trump has been on an anti-Elon Must kick this week.

The beef between the two figures grew after the Tesla CEO indicated he would support Florida Govenor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary, should he choose to run.

Donald Trump, a leader who demands loyalty from his party members, has found himself in a bind over the possible challenge by DeSantis, who is a GOP favorite. DeSantis is hard to attack as a RINO (Republican in name only), and has very high approval ratings within the party. Instead of attacking DeSantis directly, to rally his base, Trump has made Elon Musk a target to discredit him in their eyes.

At a rally on 10 July, Trump said, “Elon is not going to buy Twitter. Where did you hear that before? From me.”

Back in mid-May, the former-President began to tell his fans that he did not think that Elon Musk would go through with his plans to buy Twitter. Trump ‘truthed,’ in other words, he sent a message on Truth Social that “There is no way Elon Musk is going to buy Twitter at such a ridiculous price, especially since realizing it is a company largely based on BOTS of Spam Accounts.” Truth Social is the platform developed and launched by Donald Trump after he was removed from Twitter.

Following up with, “Fake anyone?”

Musk cited the bot issue for his justification to pull out of the $44 billion agreement.

The billionaire created a meme about the breakdown of the deal, which alludes to the fact that Twitter will be required to turn over information on the number of bot or fake accounts in open court because of the lawsuit the firm has filed.

However, others following the negociation have speculated that his reason for backing out relates to the impact liquidating Tesla stock was having on the value of the company’s market value.

Trump goes even further

After calling him a master “bull shit artist,” Trump upped the ante, declaring that when “Elon Musk came to the White House asking [...] for help on all of his many subsidized projects,” he told the president that he had voted for him in the last election. Trump said that Musk was so desperate to receive financial support from the federal government for his “electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere,” because without subsidies, “he’d be worthless.”

The Truth Social post was republished on Twitter, to which Musk responded “LMAOO” or laughing my ass off.

Did Elon Musk vote for Donald Trump?

The message from Donald Trump and Musk’s recent tweets raise questions about Musk’s voting history.

On 15 June 2022, Musk tweeted that he voted for GOP candidate Mayra Flores (TX-34) and that that was the “first time I [Musk] ever voted Republican.”

Musk has made a big deal in recent months about his decision to switch parties. However, these new comments, allegedly conflict, with what he said in personal conversations to Donald Trump.

During the speech made by Trump on the 10th, he said that he was surprised by Musk’s tweet that he had never voted for a Republican, saying, “I didn’t know that, he told me, he voted for me,” and then the former-president proceeded to call him a “bullshit artist.”

The optics of this are strange. A former president of the Untied States called one of, if not the richest man on earth, a “bullshit artist.” What makes the situation even weirder is that people who disagree deeply with both Donald Trump’s politics and Musk’s personal and business brand completely agree the the formers characterization of the latter. Exactly where the relationship between the two figures soured, is unknown.

Musk looks to Ron DeSantis

What has become clear is that Musk will not be supporting Trump in the Republican primary.

Responding to a Tweet from Breitbart News, Musk said that Trump should not run again in 2024, urging him to “hang up his hat.”

In June, Musk wrote on Twitter that he was leaning towards DeSantis, if choose to put his name in the hat in 2024.