If I were a betting woman, I would dare to say that former President Donald Trump is kind of cranky that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is over buying Twitter. After all, this almost certainly means that Trump is not getting back on Twitter, which he undoubtedly craves. So, what does the former president do in his anger? According to Musk, he starts lying, although it’s not clear exactly about what.
Over the weekend, Trump lambasted the tech billionaire, who he at one point called “Leon,” and proclaimed that he knew that Musk wasn’t going to go through with his plans to buy Twitter. The former president went on to critique Musk’s statement that he had never voted for a Republican — an apparent reference to the Tesla chief’s tweet in mid-June that he had voted for Mayra Flores in Texas, which he claimed was the first time he ever voted Republican — and said that the billionaire had told voted for him in the past.
“You know he said the other day, ‘I’ve never voted for a Republican.’ I said ‘I didn’t know that. He told me he voted for me,’” Trump said at an event in Alaska. “So, he’s another bullshit artist.”
Musk addressed Trump’s comments on his voting record on Monday night in a tweet, responding simply, “Not true.”
Not true
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022
Now, if this were any other reasonable person, you would imagine that the response indicated that Musk had indeed not voted for Trump. Yet, Musk is slippery, so his response could also mean that he never told Trump that he voted for him. We’ll likely never know unless Musk decided to elaborate.
Gizmodo reached out to Trump for comment on Tuesday morning but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The billionaire did go on to clarify his thoughts about Trump, who is reportedly considering another bid for the presidency in 2024, and indicated yet again that he was leaning towards Republican Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. DeSantis has not announced whether he is running in the next presidential election.
“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” Musk tweeted in response to a video of Trump’s Alaska speech. “Dems should also call off the attack – don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency.”
I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.
Dems should also call off the attack – don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022
He added that if Trump were to win the election in 2024, he would be 82 when his term ended, “which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America.” Ouch.