Elon Musk backs down from $45 million a month pledge to Trump: ‘I don't subscribe to cult of personality’
fortune.com
But, Trump demonstrated “great courage” after being shot on July 13, the CEO added.
  • @[email protected]
    9•9 months ago

    His entire life is built upon and fueled by cult of personality. It’s the reason he owns that shitty website.

  • @[email protected]
    15•9 months ago

    Why just yesterday I was suggesting to a coworker that the Musk pledge was probably bullshit. They’re both dudes who like to promise big and then completely fail to deliver, why would this be any different?

  • @[email protected]
    125•9 months ago

    I have a feeling he’s still donating the money, but realized he was doing it too loudly and attracting attention to the oligopoly.

    • @[email protected]
      29•9 months ago

      And I guess per our infallible supreme court he can donate in complete secrecy if he wants to.

    • @[email protected]English
      41•9 months ago

      Nah I think this is just another example of Elon Musk being impulsive and not thinking through the consequences of his statements.

      He can’t actually afford $45m a month. His wealth is in Tesla shares (which are difficult to draw done further both while he continues to try to fleece the company with an absurd pay package and also can’t risk destabilising the share price - its something of a house of cards with its value largely based on the future possibility of a flawed self drive tech) and Twitter (which took $20bn of his actual liquid assets and then debt and which he is running into the ground).

      Also he may be realising the PR mistake of backing trump when he runs an electric car company that is losing market share and valued speculatively rather than actual financials.

      His focus is really gettingnas much out of Tesla as hebcan before the markets turn on it.

      • @[email protected]
        19•9 months ago

        That bit you said about realizing his PR mistake, I’ve got an interesting bit on that.

        I have a friend who is pretty conservative, we live in one of the most conservative areas in the US (Trump got close to 90% of the vote here). He went all in on Tesla stocks early on and then later he bought two of the Model S. One for him, one for his wife. Everywhere he went he had to defend that decision. “Huht huht, Jim’s done turned into a socialist and got himself a liberal car!” Dumb shit like that. For years the car was so rare around here that he got attention like he was cruising around in an old Model T Ford, only it was always negative attention.

        His was the only Tesla I ever seen in person for years.

        After Musk made his personality very public though, I see them everywhere. I’m in rural VA. These people have to charge them at home. I’ve never seen a charge station anywhere. He no longer gets attention for his car. I pass about 5 of them on the way to work every day.

        I know this information is mostly useless, but maybe his batshit insane interactions with the public have actually been good for electric cars, as silly as that might sound. To a lot of people out here in redneck land, the electric car is no longer a California pussy liberal car if it’s a Tesla. It’s a status symbol. “Look at me fellers, I’m doing putty good fer myself!”

          • @[email protected]
            2•9 months ago

            Oh I definitely don’t think that. Dude is clearly a moron, it just happened that way.

            I don’t know if he’s a moron or not really, if he just got lucky being born into money or whatever. I know he has some moron takes though, like nonstop.

  • @[email protected]
    19•9 months ago

    So everyone against Trump hates him for… well lots of reasons, but most recent the blatant Trump support. He’s not going to win back anyone from that group, even with this backpedaling.

    And now everyone in the MAGA camp hates him because he has betrayed Dear Leader.

    So does this mean that everyone hates him now, or does he just have to rely on the support of apolitical middle-ground both-parties-are-the-same sorts?