Trump says Musk will face 'very serious consequences' if he funds Democratic candidates -NBC News
U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview with NBC News on Saturday, said there would be "serious consequences" if billionaire Elon Musk funds Democratic Party candidates to run against Republicans who vote for Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill.
Trump declined to say what those consequences would be in the phone interview, and went on to add that he had not had discussions about whether to investigate Musk.
Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, "I would assume so, yeah."
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Because in a functional democracy, threatening opposition is encouraged and often leads to a healthy society. /s
I’m starting to think his goal might not be a healthy society.
I have young kids. They often say things like “if I were president, I would—“ and then say some borderline totalitarian nonsense like “make it illegal to put pickles on burgers” or some other thing that is self-focused and completely misunderstands the nature of the presidency.
Which is all to say that Trump holds the same view of the presidency that a five-year-old does. And he occupies the office. Awesome.
He said it himself:
https://theweek.com/speedreads/575962/donald-trump-tells-biographer-hes-same-now-first-grade
Honestly he was probably better as a first grader because he hadn’t learned everything about how to be an unrelenting asshole yet
One of the few times I 100% believe him
He often lets stuff slip straight from the id tbh
Beginning to think he isn’t very honest, either.
Or a good businessman.
He'd sorta have a point about people shouldn't be able to just dump a few millions on elections to influence them, but since Elmo did literally that for trump it's not only too late, it's also hypocritical as shit
Which makes sense because for Republicans it's always them accusing Democrats of what they are doing themselves
If any Democrat accepts funds from Musk they've lost my vote.
If they take his money and then release a public statement calling him a nazi piece of shit who will never have any influence in their office I'd allow it. Bonus points if they promise Musk they won't do that before doing it.
Otherwise, yeah. Musk needs to be a Kanye level pariah at least for what he's done.
I'm mixed on this. I understand the sentiment, but it probably depends on who they're running against. If it's a red state and they're running against a republican, I would be fine with them taking the money.
Musk is a nazi, as evidenced by his nazi salute earlier this year.
Any democrat that accepts nazi money, it's saying they're fine with nazis, which makes them a nazi, because the only scum that's fine with nazis, are other nazis.
You can't condemn nazi behavior while taking money from nazis, and allowing them to support you. You tell them to fuck all the way off, because the only thing a nazi deserves is the comfort of a grave.
I would say the more compelling evidence is the fact that his entire family wealth is a direct result of Apartheid, and now that it has earned him literal richest man in the world status, he uses that status to go out in public and, without a hint of irony, say that white people in South Africa are victims of racism.
I see what you're saying, but taking nazi money from a nazi to spend and then using it to do good in the world? It's like an ethics trolley problem.
Taking nazi money by seizing his assets is how you go about using nazi money, not by accepting the support of a nazi. If you're accepting the support of a nazi, you're no better than conservatives currently accepting the support of nazis.
I feel like that's the best option and you're right. I just don't see that happening in America now or in the near future. The next best option is to do what the other poster said and say they will not be bought and won't be doing anything he asks before they take the money. Also, again, they're not going against another democrat.
By accepting money from a nazi, they're saying they can be bought by a nazi. It's lobbying, and it's why we file taxes for a return every year, why climate change is ignored, internet isn't a utility, weed is federally illegal, and the fairness doctrine got chucked out the window.
That will win you a moral high ground and lose you an election thereby extending a fascist rule. Money wins elections. You can't "sieze assets" when you aren't in office. It's delusional to think someone will be able to turn down money from the biggest donors and get into any position that will change something meaningful at this point. They need to make sure the money doesn't have any strings attached to it, and get into office. Then make changes.
It probably would be resolved in this fashion. :P
It'd be acceptable if they also invited him on stage and shot him dead. Take advantage of his comfort towards what he assumes is moral duplicity and stroke his ego a bit, then well kill him.
I wouldn’t say I’d be “fine” with them taking the money under any circumstance. But it’s never going to lead me to voting for repugnacans either directly or indirectly through abstaining.
That's what I'm afraid of, that this would lead people to vote 3rd party or republican. Republicans being split up would be great too.
I’d go so far as to say Musk donating to a democrat candidate may be done explicitly as a poison pill to reduce support from the base.
You can refuse donations. Or publicly disavow his support if it's in the form of independently bought media.
Just ignore the labels for a second- would you prefer to vote for the nazi-funded candidate?
They'd both be nazi-funded candidates.
oooh edgy hows that bachelors of philosophy degree coming
Ah, so you're fine with Republicans winning.
And you're fine with nazis getting involved with the party? That's some dumb fuck conservative double think.
You really strongly believe in Citizens United, I guess? A dollar means nothing. It's something you exchange for goods and services. If Musk gives a dollar to a Democratic candidate, he's simply empowering that candidate. It's not some kind of evil spell that instantly contaminates the candidate.
Sheesh, no wonder American politics is such an irredeemable mess of authoritarianism.
You said it yourself. Money is exchanged for goods and services. What is Musk buying? His history doesn't lean towards good will.
He's buying a Democrat into power.
If Musk donated money to an animal shelter would you conclude that puppies must be evil? Look at what's being done, not who it's being done by.
I'd wonder what the shelter was going to do with the unadopted animals, yes. I'd infer they were probably going to his brain chip testing farm.
Musk chooses who he gives money to. He's not going to give money to Bernie, who's currently rallying against oligarchs. Instead, he's going to give it to the people who are willing to push his fascist agenda. In the last election that was conservatives, but it's not like the liberals don't have freaks of their own. Money and advertising spend largely determines election outcomes, so by giving cash to politicians he likes, he can literally buy elections. Very few politicians would turn down his cash if offered, because they want the advantage it would bring. They also just have a fetish for sucking the toes of large donors.
Brother there's no amount of lesser of two evils that lets you pick a Nazi. That's a fucking Line in the Sand.
I'm not saying vote for Musk. I'm saying vote for a Democrat.
If they're on musk's payroll that's who you're really voting for. Not even mentioning the fact that if you're taking Nazi money well..
So it's trivial for Musk to decide who you vote for, then. You don't care about the candidate's position, just whose "team" he's on.
It's kind of pathetic watching Americans continue sabotaging their chances of getting out of authoritarian control even now. What will it take to end that purity spiral?
If you think voting for a guys who work for Nazis is how you get out of authoritarian control I don't know what to tell you. Also musk isn't the one deciding that there. The candidates are. If they show me that they're Nazi sympathizers I'm not going to vote for them. If you find that to be a weird Line in the Sand for somebody then I find that really weird about you.
I'll say it again my Line in the Sand is nazis. If you think that's a purity test fine I'm comfortable with that. That's one that I'm proud to have.
Right. Mine too. And supporting the Republican candidate in the upcoming elections means you're supporting the nazi candidate.
The US is a two party system. If you don't vote for one, you're tacitly supporting the other. That's how Trump got into power. I have no sympathy for people who continue to perpetuate his power.
Ah, so you're fine with nazis.
There is no line with centrists.
It’s a fine line to walk. We do not want to support anyone who freely gets in bed with Musk, but draw too hard a line and we end up with worse (see supporters of Palestine and Biden/Harris/Trump.)
centrists are fine with nazis because nazis aren't progressives.
The fact that a billionaire bought an election and can easily buy it again is so plain for all to see and it is repugnant. The rich shouldn't be.
That last sentence, I parsed it 2 ways and both are appealing.
Musk is going to fund Republican candidates in the primaries, non-MAGA Republicans. The idea he would fund Dems is laughable. It will be interesting to see which way the Republicans go, money or MAGA.
Non maga repugs are terrified of Trump and won’t sand up to him though, there’s no reason to fund them either
Trump doesn't want to get blamed when Democrats start winning elections. If it happens Musk will gloat for credit and the finger pointers will say Trump should not have pissed off Musk.
I bet this is the right answer. D's are already winning more.
never interrupt your enemies when they are fighting each other.
Direct action is working. Don't let up!
that's how you got into this. 86 million people checking out.
ok? still, that's how you got into this, with people checking out. i didn't say you did, since it wouldn't make sense after you said you wanted to check out now. my point is that these cunts want to tire people enough to make them check out so they can do whatever they want without any pushback.
dude, go fuck yourself. this is a public thread. if you don't want comments don't make public comments online.
the what? what does being a hero have to do with anything? and "someone's upset" is rich coming from the dude who immediately took things personally and started cursing defensively.
And, since the Supreme Court has ruled money = speech with the Citizens United ruling, Trump has just set Elon up for a First Amendment case if anything happens. One that the taxpayer will likely foot the bill to defend.
Threatening action as a government official is taking an action. Under the rules of CU, he has standing. Then again, the Roberts court doesn't care about stare decisis or the letter of the law or the spirit of the law, just what can keep the grift flowing.
I'm sure billionaires will be funding Democrats hard, which is why we need to treat the party like neo-feudalists from now on. No matter what they say, they cannot be trusted to do anything but further raid the working class. They're more of a long term enemy than Trump, and we cannot give them an easy time. They will never be saviors, only new masters.
they actually fund both, but they fund the gop more when they can get tax cuts, or thier investment wont get taxed to hell.
The game is fundamentally different now in a worse way. We're looking at a future of neo feudal politicians once this fascist flame burns through the nation. The end of the US as a unified whole is a genuine possibility. Feudalists gaining control and creating a hellish dystopia with the power of the empire is the alternative. Post Trump America will be never be as successful a liberal democracy as 2024 America was, and 2024 America was absolutely bottom of the barrel.
America needs to burn and probably will, but that will more likely to be awful than not. It will be a monumental lift to bring about a positive future.
I gotta say, I don't think I can trust any candidate that takes money from this guy
JFC
Oh goody. What kind of consequences are we talking?
More angry Truth Social tweets
We've had the quiet dictatorship. But what about the loud one?
I double dog dare you!