It's been a wild month with the 2024 election drama that got even weirder with Elon Musk's public endorsement of former Republican President Donald Trump that directly contradicted his previously critical view of him.
For the first time in the election, on July 13, Musk officially endorsed the former President by sharing the viral footage of him triumphantly pumping his fist after sustaining a minor injury from the assassination attempt at a recent Pennsylvania rally.
The founder of SpaceX wrote on his platform X (formerly Twitter):
"I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery."
Interestingly, Musk didn't always view the GOP standard-bearer so favorably.
One of the criticisms Musk had of him throughout their rocky relationship was about Trump's age.
Trump has repeatedly mocked his political nemesis, Democratic President Joe Biden, for seeking another term as an octogenarian.
Biden, who is 81, officially dropped out of the race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris after facing scrutiny from congressional Democrats claiming he was "too old" to run—particularly after his poor performance debate with Trump on June 27.
Two years before Musk endorsed Trump, the CEO of Tesla, Inc. used the same ageist argument against him in a resurfaced tweet.
It awkwardly showed him stating that the ex-President, who is just four years younger than Biden, would be "too old" to run the country if he were re-elected for a second White House term.
A screenshot of Musk's tweet from July 11, 2022, shared by X user Travis Akers, read:
"Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America."
Musk also suggested there would be no contest if the then-2024 Republican candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis became the GOP nominee and faced off against Biden.
DeSantis dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump two days before the New Hampshire primary.
Akers captioned the screenshot of Musk's vintage tweet and wrote:
"I agree with @elonmusk. Trump is too old."
@elonmusl/X
The internet agreed with Musk's past sentiment that Trump was getting a little long in the tooth.
Meanwhile, Musk, whose growing allyship with Trump led to his plan to donate $45 million a month to the pro-Trump America political action committee (PAC), found himself getting raked across the coals for his current endorsement.
Musk's comment previously backing DeSantis was in response to Trump taking aim at Musk at a political rally in Anchorage, Alaska in July 2022.
"You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump told his MAGA followers, adding:
"I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullsh*t artist."
Following Trump's remark, Musk wrote on X:
"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."
He added:
"Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69."
Trump was 76 at the time.
In response to the "sail into the sunset" dig, Trump fired back with a wordy message on his Truth Social platform and surmised that Musk would have "begged" him for government subsidies.
Trump wrote:
"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless and tell me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it."
Musk laughed off Trump's comments, tweeting, "Lmaooo"–shorthand for "laughing my a** off."
In October 2022 after Musk's acquisition of Twitter was finalized, Trump praised the transaction on Truth Social, writing:
"I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country."
Twitter had previously banned Trump after his involvement in inciting the violence on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol.
As the new owner of the platform, Musk denounced Twitter for giving Trump the boot, calling it a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme."
Trump ruled out a return to the platform, saying that he preferred his Truth Social better.
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