3 months ago
16
WASHINGTON: Tech honcho and the world's richest man
Elon Musk
is going all in for Donald Trump amid a raging
social media
war about truth and
misinformation
, and which side,
Democrats
or
MAGA Republicans
, represents what.
In a series of posts on his platform X, Musk left no doubt about his political affiliation by characterizing the Democratic Party as a "party of criminals" and asserting that "a Trump victory is essential to defense of freedom of speech, secure borders, safe cities and sensible spending!"
Amid growing concern that his platform is become a cesspool of misinformation and propaganda from both sides under the guise of free speech, Musk himself posted a mischievous AI generated photo of Kamala Harris wearing a red communist uniform with the caption, "Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one.
Can you believe she wears that outfit!?"
There was no caveat about the post being sarcastic or a spoof. In several other posts, Musk trashed Democrats and Kamala Harris while talking up Trump, including confirming that he looked forward to a job in a prospective Trump administration.
Trump is reportedly considering Musk for a role in auditing federal agencies to identify programs to cut. "I can’t wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go," Musk said, referring to one such report.
In keeping with his pledge to uphold free speech, Musk also allowed posts and memes eviscerating him although some critics contended, without evidence, that they are being censored on X. Several memes showed AI generated photos of Musk wearing military uniform and other strongman suits.
AI generated meme showing Musk wearing military uniform
In response to Musk's post that "the reason the Democratic Party is so soft on criminals is that criminals vote overwhelmingly Democrat – they don’t want to offend their customers!" several critics pointed out that it was his favored candidate Trump who has been indicted for crimes. "The Republican nominee for president is literally a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist," one post read.
After Musk posted that "Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and the Democratic Party (Kamala is just a puppet) wants to destroy it," one critic contended that "Elon Musk being about free speech is about as funny as Donald Trump's Truth Social being about the truth," while another wrote, "Elon has gotten *significantly* more deranged lately.... Such a hateful, deceitful, venal, creepy, *vile* little white supremacist hobgoblin."
There were also calls to revoke Musk's security clearance (his companies are closely allied with government space programs) and his US citizenship (he is a South African immigrant).
A self-proclaimed Democrat at one time who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, Musk has firmly moved into Trump's MAGA-sphere in recent months, echoing far-right misinformation and conspiracy theories. Although he has said he could no longer support Democrats because they are the "party of division and hate," his platform allows plenty of division and hate, some of it masquerading as diverse opinion. This includes savage criticism and abuse directed against him in keeping with his claim of being a free speech absolutist.
