Elon Musk may have spent $44 billion on Twitter, but he didn’t do so while listening to Donald Trump.
The Tesla CEO and ex-boyfriend of Grimes shot down Devin Nunes’ claim that the twice-impeached former president was behind his Twitter acquisition. Nunes, who runs Trump’s social media rival company Truth Social, told the press earlier this week that it was his boss’s idea for Musk to take control of Twitter saying, “we encouraged Elon Musk to buy” because “someone has to take on these tech tyrants. Donald Trump wanted to make sure that the American people got their voice back and that the internet was open and that’s what we are doing.”
Musk who, one could argue, is also a “tech tyrant” clapped back against Trump taking credit for his truly terrible investment in the company tweeting, “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on Truth Social.”
Whether Musk is actually pals with Trump or not is another question. The tech mogul has criticized Trump’s social media platform in the past and his far-right supporters. He also seems happy to let Trump play in his own sandbox while brainstorming ways Twitter might start making money. So far his best idea seems to be to charge companies and businesses (though likely not his own) to use the platform.
Still, seeing as Trump’s Truth Social has experienced some embarrassing setbacks recently, it makes sense that Musk wants to distance himself from another businessman whose grand “free speech” crusade has basically turned out to be a 4-chan knockoff.
(Via Variety)