In September, there were signs on and off the network formerly known as Twitter that Elon Musk’s attempt to elect Donald Trump was stalling.
This comes after a weekend in which Musk immortalized the hashtag #DorkMAGA at a Trump rally, appropriated the @America account from its owner and used it to literally give money to voters in battleground states. The attempt entered uncharted territory.
How did we get here? Let’s summarize.
On September 23, Musk successfully fact-checked (also known as a “community note”) an X post about US politics for the first time in 2024. Musk spread a false rumor that a bomb was found at Trump’s rally. A New York Times review of 171 of Musk’s posts from that week found that nearly a third of them were “false, misleading, or lacked significant context.” The fact that only one of them was marked as such shows how much mask supporters on the service downvote his posts in community notes.
Even for Stan and his friends, the fake bomb threat seemed to be beyond common sense.
Meanwhile, IRL, Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC was faltering. In the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada that will decide the 2024 election, turnout is crucial, and Mr. Musk has launched a full-scale turnout strategy. This was bad news for the Republican candidate, whom Musk formally endorsed in July, given that America PAC is almost the only ground battle for the Trump campaign. As of last week, early voting had already begun in some states and America PAC was still hiring.
And on Friday, Musk underwent another very public online fact check. This time, it wasn’t a community note, but a response from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Musk, sharing a screenshot of an anonymous text making wild claims about the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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“Support flights are underway, and we’re very grateful,” Musk said after his conversation with Buttigieg. This is like claiming credit for solving a problem that doesn’t exist, but it essentially retracts the false claim that FEMA is blocking Musk’s satellite internet company from helping with hurricane relief.
Could the weekend get any more embarrassing for him?
Mask: Hold your beer.
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At President Trump’s weekend rally in Pennsylvania, Musk appeared wearing a black “Make America Great Again” hat and declared himself a “dark MAGA.”
According to the Global Network for Extremism and Technology, the #DarkMAGA hashtag represents a desire to go back to 2022 and pursue a path of harsh retribution against MAGA critics. Dark MAGA posts frequently include Nazi and QAnon images.
mashable light speed
If Musk’s intention was to evoke more frightening images, he was partially successful, albeit not in the way he had hoped. When Mr. Musk shook Mr. Trump’s hand, there was a strange expression on his face, and one photo spawned a thousand memes.
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But even that meme couldn’t withstand the firepower of Musk’s belly button…well, let’s call it a rocket launch.
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When you combine the two, it’s no wonder a new hashtag was born: #DorkMAGA.
new profile, who
These images contrasted with Musk’s new Twitter/X profile photo. His red armor Halloween costume, which has been used intermittently since October 2022, was changed after Saturday’s Trump rally to a more flattering mask (and Replaced with a more edited) photo. (Some supporters of Mr. Musk’s Blue Check purchase were quick to point out that changing your profile picture would mean losing your verification badge.)
This is an apparent echo of Musk’s claims in April 2022, when he was preparing to buy Twitter, that the service was “politically neutral” and should sway “the far left and the far right equally.” It was far from it.
And just in case some were confused by the subtlety of the black-on-black MAGA cap, Musk clarified his political message in his new bio. โRead @America to understand why I support President Trump.โ
This was the first indication that Musk had seized the @America account from its original owner and handed it over to America PAC. As my Mashable colleague Matt Binder revealed, the original account holder (who happened to call Musk “anti-American” in 2020) was given the not-so-memorable handle @America123_12. It was getting worse.
Of course, Mr. Musk has the right to seize any account – it was his service, and he overpaid for it. He has appropriated the “X” handle from a photographer once before. But at least that was his company’s new name. Appropriating the name of a country for purely political purposes…well, let’s just say it may not fully convey the concept of “free speech” that Mr. Musk believes he is defending.
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But hey, what could be more American than promising free money for election-related purposes? That’s what Mr. Musk did with his American account, offering a $47 reward to users in battleground states who got them to sign the PAC’s petition (and, of course, losing their contact information in the process). (also collected).
Posting the bounty makes sense given that America PAC has struggled to recruit. Whether this constitutes a violation of federal election law, specifically 18 U.S.C. 597, is up to the Federal Election Commission and has not yet been considered. But some experienced political observers had no doubts.
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I won’t help you, mom.
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And as if that wasn’t enough, Musk’s mother, May, referenced another post by the owner of Company X, jokingly hinting at election fraud.
His mother, Musk, insisted that the proposal for her son’s supporters to register and vote 10 times at different polling stations was “not illegal.”
A community note added to Maye Musk’s tweet on Saturday said: “This is actually illegal.” The note appeared to be deleted on Sunday, but was restored on Monday.
For Musk’s fans, supporting his mother’s rights to suggest this kind of election fraud was clearly a step too far. This is an act for which Republican officials have already been indicted.
Topic Elon Musk Politics