Summary

Democratic strategist Chai Komanduri claims Elon Musk has “taken over” MAGA and the Republican Party, likening it to how Trump originally took control of the GOP.

Musk, a former Biden supporter, shifted to Republicans over disagreements on free speech, immigration, and public health.

Now a close Trump ally, Musk has donated $75 million to pro-Trump groups and will co-lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” to reduce government waste.

His rising influence in GOP politics is seen as positioning him as a potential MAGA successor.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    22 days ago

    Don’t worry everyone, i’ve worked for rich guys and I can assure you that two rich people are absolutely incapable of working together for more than a few months.

    Trump and Musk are going to turn on one another, it’s only a matter of time

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      22 days ago

      hopefully they just bitch slap each other for four years and nothing of consequence actually gets implemented.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Nah, if Musk pisses off Trump he loses hard and fast. Trump could easily get away with making it an official act to strip Musk of all his wealth and instead of turning it over to the state, turn it over to the GOP. Use the guise that it is not communist because they are turning it over to a private company, not the government and it was all done for security reasons after Musk commited treason in dealings with Putin.

        The GOP controls the house and Senate, so they wouldn’t vote for impeachment, it checks the boxes for being pro capitalism, and anti Russia. And they make buckets off of him. The penalty they set for his Treason, execution. To show they are hard on crime and believe in the death penalty.

        Doubt they would even need to fabricate any evidence, it is already there.

        • jrs100000@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          No expropriation necessary. All hes got to do is knock out Tesla’s subsidies and SpaceX’s government contracts…maybe have the DOT and FAA take a reeaaal close look at their safety records just to put the final nail in their coffins. Trump is petty though, my bingo card say he also threatens to strip him of his citizenship and have him deported before this is all over.

          • shuzuko@midwest.social
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            22 days ago

            The day he deports musk will be the only day I ever wholeheartedly support something cheeto mussolini does.

            • jrs100000@lemmy.world
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              22 days ago

              I doubt he would actually be able to do it. Even if he had a solid case, Musk has the money to drag this through the courts until long after Trump is gone. However, Im pretty sure hell make a big show of the threat when they inevitably have their falling out.

              • toddestan@lemm.ee
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                21 days ago

                If Trump wanted to deport Musk, he’d just do it. It’s not like the courts have ever stopped Trump from doing whatever he wants.

                • jrs100000@lemmy.world
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                  21 days ago

                  What? No, they stopped him all the time. They never hold him accountable, but they stopped all sorts of crazy shit.

              • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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                22 days ago

                Trump makes it an “official act” to send the Army division of his choice to Musk’s mansion, battering ram the door down, throw him in the back of the nearest C-17, and drop him naked at the gate of Camp Lemonnier.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          Use the TikTok ban on Xitter. There’s no judicial process or appeal, and the evidence is a state secret that they don’t have to show anyone.(TikTok is contesting the law itself right now, if they lose then it’s going to be very hard for social media to get out from under that law)

          It would be the height of irony.

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            21 days ago

            The ban is on foreign ownership of media being spread to our population. So long as the majority owner is Musk, it’s legal unless he was deported.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              Oh no. People massively misunderstand this point. It doesn’t have to be a foreign owner. It has a catch all in the definition of “Controlled by a Foreign Adversary”. (link)

              © a person subject to the direction or control of a foreign person or entity described in subparagraph (A) or (B).

              And the evidence is classified. This is literally where they can point at someone and claim they are controlled by Putin or Xi and there’s nothing you can do but try to get the law declared unconstitutional again.

              Edit - because I realize the Congress page isn’t updated for some reason, if you want to find the actual law as passed, it’s Public Law 118-50. The section I reference is absolutely still in there. Even the wiki misses this crucial part of the definition.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      IMHO this is just hopium.

      There’s no indication that they will not work together since they need each other for their own separate selfish reasons.

      They will use each other as long as goals have not been met.

      When those goals are met then they will have a falling out. And at that point it’s too late for the rest of us.

      • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        Also both clearly report to Putin, so likely he told them to work together. And each of them is getting something out of it (for Musk, I assume nobody will look more deeply into his companies anymore, which are known to break all manner of regulations).

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Rich people have absolutely worked together in the past. Your theory only works until suddenly it doesn’t and we have a big ass threat to deal with.

      • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        We already have a “big ass threat” it’s the Christo-fascists on the supreme court, the wingnut lower court judges, and all the dark money being funneled to groups like Mom’s for Liberty who’re burning books.

        Musk and Trump are just symptoms of this “big ass threat” and the DNC have been slow rolling their response because they’re fat on the same dark money.

        We’re in an autocracy. And there’s a lot of work to get out of it.

          • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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            21 days ago

            I’m saying "yes and… " here. The point of my argument is that merely being rich, regardless of political affiliation, is contributing to the autocracy. Even when they’re at odds. They’re still paying into a system that benefits them.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              My point is they may have interpersonal issues but they all very much understand why they donate to the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      The hyaenas are airway at each others’ throats. It’ll at least provide some entertainment throughout this whole mess.

    • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      I have a thought that perhaps he’s done the meth, realized how far off the mars goals are, looked at the state of climate and how far gone it is regardless of intervention and decided to hell with all of it.

      • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        That’s something I don’t get. The amount of work and change required to make Mars livable for humans is insane and we still don’t even know if it is possible. The amount of change required to fix our planet’s climate is minuscule in comparison. They want to terraform a planet that is completely hostile to human life and yet we can’t even get our own planet’s average temperature down by 1 degree.

        • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          Musk is the type of guy who thinks the key roadblock in any problem is that he isn’t in charge. It’s harder to be in charge of Earth than it is to be in charge of Mars.

        • kandoh@reddthat.com
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          22 days ago

          Coca-Cola’s mission statement is ‘to refresh the world’.

          That sounds a lot nicer than their actual mission ‘to make as much money as possible selling sugar water’.

          Colonizing Mars is not his intention, it’s just a cool sounding thing that he pretends he wants to do for social clout. He’s interested making money and being popular, that’s the extent of it all.

        • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          If they were serious about mars then they should be building very large scale very long term habitats deep in the ocean. It’s a lot closer than Mars so if something goes wrong they can improve the design faster. A trip to mars is expected to take nearly 2 years!

        • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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          22 days ago

          To be fair, you dont actually have to terraform a planet to colonize it, theres nothing physics defying with having a civilization of people living in airtight buildings with controlled climate inside indefinitely. It still isnt a solution to climate change for any number of obvious reasons, but I dont know that anyone that seriously wants to see a mars colony start in their lifetime actually intends to terraform the place first. Terraforming gets thrown around casually in science fiction, but to actually reshape the entire surface and climate of a planet that way, even if we had the requisite technology and infrastructure right now, would be a process that would probably take millennia at best and be incredibly destructive to any infrastructure existing on the surface during that time. If you want to build a mars colony now, rather than at some point where we’re ancient history after human civilization has finished what would be to them the largest and longest construction project ever, then you pretty much have to accept Mars’s climate conditions for what they are and build around them rather than try to change them.

      • fluxion@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        It was always a grift with these guys. It’s almost comical to think they ever cared about saving/helping humanity at this point.

    • takeda@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      He made everyone think he did, what he cares about were the government subsidies.

      BTW: I still see bots on various social networks promote him as some kind of genius, a lot of us got fooled.

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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        22 days ago

        It’s comforting to think that they’re all bots. The uncomfortable truth is that there’s a type of guy who made idolising Musk as the Visionary Techno-Genius his entire personality, and some of them are still around and posting.

    • Yodan@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

      If there’s anything all these lying rich guys have in common, it’s that they say and agree with the last thing someone they want something from said. They just echo ideas that get traction and ride the wave.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I hate it when journalists do someone’s propaganda work for them. Musk could [not] care less about the issues. He thinks he can get more money out of a Trump presidency. Maybe some power too. Using his infrastructure and wealth to boost GOP issues was just his buy-in.

  • mommykink@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Musk, a former Biden supporter, shifted to Republicans over disagreements on free speech, immigration, and public health.

    Let’s be honest here, if Biden/the Dems weren’t so vocal about taxing the rich he’d never have switched. The freeze peach stuff was just a convenient excuse

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      I think it’s more like he felt like Republicans were more likely to punish his child for daring to be themselves and Grimes for daring to leave him. He’s got big divorced-guy vibes.

    • Thrashy@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Nah, fuck no. Sure, he’d been self-radicalizing for a while but Musk declared his change of allegiance literally hours after the story broke about him propositioning a SpaceX employee to join the Mile High club with him in exchange for a horse. He saw the #metoo train coming for him and decided to throw in with the guys who see that shit as a badge of honor, simple as.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Apparently he felt snubbed when he/Tesla wasn’t invited to some EV summit (the other big 3 were).

  • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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    22 days ago

    Elon is marking Trump, meanwhile Peter Thiel has his hand up JD Vance’s ass. One way or another their agenda will get through.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    He is not a “Trump ally”, he is a trump puppeteer, paying for the government that suits him and makes him more money.

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Thankfully Elon will never be a MAGA successor, and is ineligible to run for president. Let’s deport this felon immigrant back to where he came from.

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Thankfully Elon will never be a MAGA successor, and is ineligible to run for president.

      You’re also ineligible to be president if you’ve engaged in an insurrection against the United States, and look how that turned out.

    • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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      22 days ago

      Very unlikely the US passes a constitutional amendment just to allow him to be. Constitutional amendments are hard to pass even when a majority of people agree on something, and a lot of people would not support allowing foreign-born presidents.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        22 days ago

        Unfortunately, it is not even slightly difficult to imagine a situation where he becomes president. The GOP nominates him because they don’t give a fuck, then 75 million people vote for him because they don’t give a fuck, then the Supreme Court upholds the results of the election and swears him in because they don’t give a fuck.

        My gut feeling is that he won’t want to bother with it because his current strategy is working fine. But good god how different the world could look in 5-10 years. Or months.

        • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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          22 days ago

          I will bet money that doesn’t happen. Even republicans have a line when it comes to giving power to immigrants. They’ll find some figurehead to put up instead and Musk will just pull the strings from behind them.

      • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Trump will sell him birthright citizenship status just like how he retroactively bought founder status at Tesla.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    22 days ago

    Sounds like david miscavige and scientology. Out with the old cult leader and in with the new.

  • BMTea@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Elon Musk is a right-wing darling with appeal for both white nationalist types and libertarian deregulators. But no one can take over MAGA. Trump is top dog, to the degree that I have no clue what they’ll do once he’s gone from office.

  • actually@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Listening to my small town chatter, where there are many mega enthusiasts, I can promise there there is no love for Musk. I think this guy is out of touch or my community is special.

    And that strikes a nerve about how my area was double abandoned by the Democratic Party. Not only are they unwilling to talk about cheating by Republicans in elections here, but the party does understand or wish to understand the people.

    Is it any wonder many here are seduced by lies? They are not dumb, just desperate.

    • whithom@discuss.online
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      22 days ago

      I don’t think maga could ever accept Elon as anything more than an electric soyboy. He can’t just put on a belt buckle and some boots and change his image riding up in a cybertruck. He’s also from Africa, which is the butt of many jokes.

    • Nastybutler@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      They are not dumb, just desperate

      The two are not mutually exclusive. I’d say they’re most definitely dumb and desperate