Elon Musk and his bullhorn social media platform X, is a clear and present danger to the 2024 election. He's spreading lies and misinformation faster than Trump himself. The only way to counter this is to fight back with the real danger to our national security he presents.
Minutes after the July 13th attempted assasination of Donald Trump, Elon Musk made his endorsement of Trump known using his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Days later came reports that Musk was going to donate $45 million each month to Trump's campaign. Days after that, Elon denied the pledge, but said he was going to donate money to America PAC.
Then, on Oct. 5th, he jumped around on stage with Trump at a rally at the site of Trump's assassination attempt at Butler, Pennsylvania. Comedians and Tim Walz made fun of his antics, but he may be jumping around because he thinks Trump will be able to get him out of his problems. He has, with Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X, facing "at least 20" federal investigations that are underway
Musk pays very little in taxes, according to a ProPublica report, and Trump has promised to cut even more taxes for his billionaire friends.
Musk has billions of dollars in government contracts, mostly with the Pentagon and NASA. Trump has said he wants Elon to run a "government efficiency commission." The New York Times commented that it "would essentially give the world's richest man and a major goverment contractor the power to regulate the regulators who hold sway over his companies." This week, Musk said he would change the rules for self-driving cars, also known as robotaxis, if Trump puts him in charge of the commission.
From new campaign finance reports, Musk has gifted $119 million to America PAC, so far. $44 million in October alone. This is just as an individual. His companies could do so as well, because of a Supreme Court decision back in 2010 called Citizens United. It boiled down to a 5-4 decision that money was speech. Corporations, unions, and even non-profits could no longer be barred from donating money to influence elections. That's why we have political action committees, or PACs, that collect huge amounts of money that can't go directly to candidates. We still have three of those Supreme Court Justices on the bench: Roberts, Thomas and Alito.
There's the Musk controversy over his $1 million a day giveaway to registered voters, through America PAC. Federal law bars paying people to register to vote, and to vote, period. The $1 million is given randomly to people who are registered and sign a petition supporting freedoms in the First and Second Amendments.
On Sunday, America PAC changed the wording of the giveaway, of what could only be called a lottery, to the money being a payment for a job, as the winner has to become a spokesperson for America PAC.
Some experts say the giveaway is illegal, some say not, and others say even if it is totally illegal, the odds of prosecution are low. No matter what lawyers say, it just doesn't feel right. It still seems to be buying a vote. Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against Musk for the giveaway, but Musk's lawyers are arguing lack of standing by Philadelphia and at the same time trying to move the suit to a federal court. Breaking Washington Post story says the federal move just happened.
Musk's latest news story that is no longer being covered is that he's reportedly been in contact with Vladimir Putin since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Last year Musk confirmed that he had turned off Starlink, his internet satellite service, off over Crimea to prevent "escalation." What it did was stop the use, temporarily, of Ukraine air and sea drones being able to function over and around Crimea.
This new reporting by The Wall Street Journal of Musk and Putin makes the Starlink episode much more suspect. On one of the calls, reportedly, Putin asked Musk not to turn Starlink on over Taiwan at the behest of China's leader Xi Jingping.
With Musk's deep reach into the US government and his professed top security clearance, there is reason for concern. Musk did post on Oct. 4th that his support of Starlink in Ukraine is "~80M so far. Our support for Russia is $0. Obviously, we are pro Ukraine." But, that was before this new report came to light.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said there was only one phone call between between Putin and Musk about "space as well as current and future technologies."
Bob Woodward's new book "War," claims that Putin and Trump have talked at least 7 times since Trump left office in 2021. If you've got Trump talking to Putin and Musk talking to Putin, where does that leave America's security and intelligence services?
The Journal report also said that Musk had conversations with other high-ranking Kremlin officials. Why would he need to speak to them, much less Putin? The report singles out that one official's job is spreading disinformation on X, which Musk owns.
Has Musk also made strange comments about Hitler and Nazis? Yes, he just couldn't help himself after the German magazine Der Spiegel did an article comparing him to a media mogul who joined Hitler's cabinet in 1933. On X, he said, "I Nazi that coming! Those fools will Goebbels anything down....I bet their pronouns are He/Himmler." Not like saying that Hitler did good things, as with Trump, but horrible just the same.
Will this Elon-Gate have the effect of Watergate and take down the former president and his candidacy? Not to Trump's cult members, but it could make a difference to undecided voters. This tangled web of intrigue could be an October surprise that could change the course of the election, but only if mainstream media gets back to covering it instead of freaking out over Biden's "garbage" comment.
