Elon Musk - surprised there isn't already a thread

It has been discussed, but within another thread.

Friends,

First, it was over Trump’s nominee to be Treasury Secretary. The two finalists were Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and Trump’s co-transition chair, and Steven Bessent, the founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management.

Lutnick turned for help to Elon Musk, who posted on his X that Lutnick would be a better choice for treasury secretary than Bessent, because “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”

I’ve spent quite some time around presidents and president-elects and even advised them about personnel decisions. The most basic rule of such advice-giving is you never make your advice public because it puts a president or president-elect in the awkward position of conspicuously backing you or not.

In this case, Trump didn’t back Musk’s candidate, and business-as-usual Bessent will be Treasury Secretary.

The problem for Musk isn’t that he lost this skirmish. It’s that he got into it publicly at all.

Strike one against Musk.

Then it was the matter of visas to foreign skilled workers.

Musk posted that they should be allowed into the United States. “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote on X. “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.”

But several notable MAGAs, such as Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon, disagreed, to put it mildly. Loomer told The New York Times that Musk is “not MAGA and he’s a drag on the Trump transition,” and said she believed that Musk was using his relationship with Trump to further enrich himself. “Elon wants everyone to think he’s a hero because he gave $250 million to the Trump campaign. But that’s not much of an investment if it allows him to become a trillionaire.”

Bannon warned Musk “we’re going to rip your face off.”

Trump seems to have sided with Musk on this one, at least for now, but it’s bad form to start or expose a rift among a president or president-elect’s key advisors.

Strike two against Musk.

Then there was the little matter of Musk’s apparent Nazi salute on stage before Trump’s arrival in Washington’s Capital One arena on Monday.

Musk says it was misinterpreted. Others condemned it as an intentional sign of solidarity with and outreach to far-right groups.

No matter. The last thing a president needs — even one who’s a neofascist like Trump — is to provoke public worry over his administration’s neo-Nazi leanings.

But let’s not call this a strike against Musk, at least just yet.

The bigger problem for Musk is he just cast doubt on Trump’s first major tech investment.

On Tuesday, with much fanfare, Trump announced a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle to create at least $100 billion in computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence — dubbed “Stargate.”

Trump took credit for the companies’ decision to spend up to $500 billion building data centers, which are huge buildings full of servers that provide computing power.

But in two messages on X late last night, Musk said that the venture wouldn’t succeed because it didn’t have sufficient funding. “They don’t have the money," Musk wrote in reply to an OpenAI post on the announcement. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

I don’t know if Musk is correct or if he’s just pissed off at OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman. (Musk has his own AI company and has sued OpenAI and Altman for violating antitrust law. Altman took to X Wednesday morning to refute Musk’s assertion about insufficient funding.)

But that’s not the point. If you’re a president’s major advisor (and First Buddy, as Musk likes to say), you don’t do a public bowel movement on one of your boss’s first big initiatives.

Strike three.

Musk just moved into his office in the Old Executive Building next to the White House. but he’s already a loose cannon that makes Trump look weak and submissive. My guess is Musk is out within a week.

from Robert Reich column/newsletter

Some of it is on page 11, date Jan 20..

2peasrefugees.boards.net/thread/148664/miscellaneous-political-stuff-23?page=11

cynthia1218

Look in the thread about embarrassing the US.  But search with 2 peas for the word "Musk" and you will find comments.

Thanks, librarylady.

I mean the Nazis sure think it’s a Nazi salute.

You saw what you saw. Don’t let people try to gaslight you.

Anyone who thinks it’s not a Nazi salute should come over to Germany and try it. Hefty fine and up to three years in jail.

Deutches Museum in Munich - a wonderful museum of science and technology - has removed a picture of Elon Musk from display in an area where other great scientists and tech innovators are featured.

The expression on his face when he did it leaves no doubt in my mind it was deliberate.  Wanker 😡 

being from bay area.. musk has shown himself to be a very smart guy and a total asshole who doesn't care about the little people. I was never a fan of tesla and his other companies..cause he buys up the technology and is not innovative himself.

he is showing his true stripes to the rest of the country. a man without morals

Except that you KNOW that Elon's wasn't meant to be a nazi salute when: “My heart goes out to you,” Mr. Musk said, placing his hand over his heart. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.”

so is he stupid then? Apparently not so....

And how do you spin his connection to AfD? Because those guys ARE nazis. 

So why did he pump his arm out after placing his hand on his heart? The hand on heart I can understand - the arm thrust - nope. No amount of gaslighting explains that.

The average Trumper has the IQ of a banana.
You know the IQ of 77 million people?  That's amazing. 


Worry about civilization in your own messed up country.