4 ms·

Why do you think Musk put so much money into helping Trump win? Tesla was under multiple investigations for safety and unkept promises, and he knew that he woul

by acdha 1y ago

Why do you think Musk put so much money into helping Trump win? Tesla was under multiple investigations for safety and unkept promises, and he knew that he would not have leverage to halt those under a Harris administration.

thowaway52729 1y ago
If that was his goal he would have minded his own business after the election, instead of spouting invective posts against Trump on X.
- Maken 1y ago
  That was after Musk realized he had alienated his entire consumer base.
  - thowaway52729 1y ago
    And he wants to bring them back by alienating Trump while doubling down on his rhetoric?
    - delfinom 1y ago
      He has an ego and narcissism but he isn't dumb. He sees the problems but also cant admit hes wrong or anything.
      - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
        > but he isn't dumb. Musk’s assistant peeked back the muttered and said he had another meeting. “Do you have any final thoughts?” she asked. “Yes, I want to say one thing.” the data scientist said. He took a deep breath and turned to Musk. “I’m resigning today. I was feeling excited about the takeover, but I was really disappointed by your Paul Pelosi tweet. It’s really such obvious partisan misinformation and it makes me worry about you and what kind of friends you’re getting information from. It’s only really like the tenth percentile of the adult population who’d be gullible enough to fall for this.” The color drained from Musk’s already pale face. He leaned forward in his chair. No one spoke to him like this. And no one, least of all someone who worked for him, would dare to question his intellect or his tweets. His darting eyes focused for a second directly on the data scientist. “Fuck you!” Musk growled. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/25/lies-damned-lies-and-elon-musk/ https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/25/lies-damned-lies-and-elo...
  - antonvs 1y ago
    That happened much earlier. The split with Trump happened after it finally sunk in that that Republicans weren't actually interested in smaller government or cost savings, that that was just a rhetorical weapon that they deploy selectively to get elected.
    - FireBeyond 1y ago
      I thought Musk was an amazing, brilliantly intelligent man? But it took him four months deeply embedded with the Republican party to come to this conclusion? It's been blindingly obvious to anyone remotely paying attention to US politics for the last decade (or two, or more, but blindingly so, more recently).
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      - antonvs 1y ago
        If we accept his self-diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, it could make a certain amount of sense. Coupled with the common propensity for motivated reasoning - someone initially told him what he wanted to hear, and he believed it. It's always difficult to get a true read on what people believe, and that goes double for very powerful or wealthy people, who have professionals devoted to their image management. Which, not coincidentally, is also where the idea of Musk as an "amazing, brilliantly intelligent man" comes from. After all, he doesn't have any sort of history of published work or intellectual breakthroughs to support that. He seems to be good at investment, and at a certain kind of hype-based marketing, including of himself (up to a point.)
- lenkite 1y ago
  He was under some imaginary assumption that Trump cared about the national deficit because of his campaign speeches. Once he realized that Trump really didn't care two hoots about it and only planned to increase it even more he had a late buyer's realization.
  - baggachipz 1y ago
    If he thought trump would actually adhere to anything he said... or, for that matter, was the least bit consistent in what he did on a day-to-day basis, then Elon is not fit to pull his own pants up in the morning.
- rsynnott 1y ago
  I mean, if we was rational, sure, that's probably what he should have done. But, y'know, he clearly _isn't_.
- efficax 1y ago
  he's not a very smart man
- rcpt 1y ago
  He didn't really know what he was getting into until after all the appointments. I think he honestly believed that his engineering and business prowess would carry influence in the anti education party. fellforitagain.jpg
myrmidon 1y ago
I'm absolutely not a fan of Trump, but this is a highly questionable assumption. The much more likely hypothesis in my view is that he was helping Trump because of personal conviction (only in small parts motivated by naked self-interest). You should expect rational billionaires to tend politically right out of pure self-interest and distorted perspective alone; because the universal thing that such parties reliably do when in power is cutting tax burden on the top end.
- antonvs 1y ago
  Musk is on record saying to Tucker Carlson that “If [Trump] loses, I’m fucked.” So this isn't so much of an assumption, as taking him at his word.
  - unnamed76ri 1y ago
    The Left was coming after Musk pretty hard before the election. I don’t know the context of the quote you pulled but it’s not hard to see how if Trump lost, there was going to be consequences for Musk.
    - Swenrekcah 1y ago
      He has committed a lot of fraud and was facing consequences for that. That has nothing to do with left or right.
      - walls 1y ago
        It does actually, because only one side is interested in finding or fighting fraud.
        Swenrekcah 1y ago
        Currently yes, but it is not inherently so. The problem with the US regime is that it is compromised, corrupt and heading towards fascism. The problem is not that the republican party used to be a conservative right party. What I’m saying is this is not a sports competition where Musk is automatically an opponent of the Democratic party because he supported Trump. He supported Trump in order to improve his chances with the legal system because he knew Trump would be willing to be so corrupt. Another world might be imagined in which the Democratic party was taken over in 2016 but that is not the world we live in.

by acdha 1y ago

thowaway52729 1y ago

If that was his goal he would have minded his own business after the election, instead of spouting invective posts against Trump on X.

Maken 1y ago
That was after Musk realized he had alienated his entire consumer base.
- thowaway52729 1y ago
  And he wants to bring them back by alienating Trump while doubling down on his rhetoric?
  - delfinom 1y ago
    He has an ego and narcissism but he isn't dumb. He sees the problems but also cant admit hes wrong or anything.
    - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
      > but he isn't dumb. Musk’s assistant peeked back the muttered and said he had another meeting. “Do you have any final thoughts?” she asked. “Yes, I want to say one thing.” the data scientist said. He took a deep breath and turned to Musk. “I’m resigning today. I was feeling excited about the takeover, but I was really disappointed by your Paul Pelosi tweet. It’s really such obvious partisan misinformation and it makes me worry about you and what kind of friends you’re getting information from. It’s only really like the tenth percentile of the adult population who’d be gullible enough to fall for this.” The color drained from Musk’s already pale face. He leaned forward in his chair. No one spoke to him like this. And no one, least of all someone who worked for him, would dare to question his intellect or his tweets. His darting eyes focused for a second directly on the data scientist. “Fuck you!” Musk growled. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/25/lies-damned-lies-and-elon-musk/ https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/25/lies-damned-lies-and-elo...
- antonvs 1y ago
  That happened much earlier. The split with Trump happened after it finally sunk in that that Republicans weren't actually interested in smaller government or cost savings, that that was just a rhetorical weapon that they deploy selectively to get elected.
  - FireBeyond 1y ago
    I thought Musk was an amazing, brilliantly intelligent man? But it took him four months deeply embedded with the Republican party to come to this conclusion? It's been blindingly obvious to anyone remotely paying attention to US politics for the last decade (or two, or more, but blindingly so, more recently).
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - antonvs 1y ago
      If we accept his self-diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, it could make a certain amount of sense. Coupled with the common propensity for motivated reasoning - someone initially told him what he wanted to hear, and he believed it. It's always difficult to get a true read on what people believe, and that goes double for very powerful or wealthy people, who have professionals devoted to their image management. Which, not coincidentally, is also where the idea of Musk as an "amazing, brilliantly intelligent man" comes from. After all, he doesn't have any sort of history of published work or intellectual breakthroughs to support that. He seems to be good at investment, and at a certain kind of hype-based marketing, including of himself (up to a point.)
lenkite 1y ago
He was under some imaginary assumption that Trump cared about the national deficit because of his campaign speeches. Once he realized that Trump really didn't care two hoots about it and only planned to increase it even more he had a late buyer's realization.
- baggachipz 1y ago
  If he thought trump would actually adhere to anything he said... or, for that matter, was the least bit consistent in what he did on a day-to-day basis, then Elon is not fit to pull his own pants up in the morning.
rsynnott 1y ago
I mean, if we was rational, sure, that's probably what he should have done. But, y'know, he clearly _isn't_.
efficax 1y ago
he's not a very smart man
rcpt 1y ago
He didn't really know what he was getting into until after all the appointments. I think he honestly believed that his engineering and business prowess would carry influence in the anti education party. fellforitagain.jpg

myrmidon 1y ago

I'm absolutely not a fan of Trump, but this is a highly questionable assumption. The much more likely hypothesis in my view is that he was helping Trump because of personal conviction (only in small parts motivated by naked self-interest). You should expect rational billionaires to tend politically right out of pure self-interest and distorted perspective alone; because the universal thing that such parties reliably do when in power is cutting tax burden on the top end.

antonvs 1y ago
Musk is on record saying to Tucker Carlson that “If [Trump] loses, I’m fucked.” So this isn't so much of an assumption, as taking him at his word.
- unnamed76ri 1y ago
  The Left was coming after Musk pretty hard before the election. I don’t know the context of the quote you pulled but it’s not hard to see how if Trump lost, there was going to be consequences for Musk.
  - Swenrekcah 1y ago
    He has committed a lot of fraud and was facing consequences for that. That has nothing to do with left or right.
    - walls 1y ago
      It does actually, because only one side is interested in finding or fighting fraud.
      - Swenrekcah 1y ago
        Currently yes, but it is not inherently so. The problem with the US regime is that it is compromised, corrupt and heading towards fascism. The problem is not that the republican party used to be a conservative right party. What I’m saying is this is not a sports competition where Musk is automatically an opponent of the Democratic party because he supported Trump. He supported Trump in order to improve his chances with the legal system because he knew Trump would be willing to be so corrupt. Another world might be imagined in which the Democratic party was taken over in 2016 but that is not the world we live in.