Elon Musk is good at many things, but none of his talents are quite so honed as his knack for cringe.
And his appearance at Trump's bizarre, Hitler-referencing Madison Square Garden rally was no exception.
While speaking on stage at the event, Musk couldn't stop screaming "USA!"—certainly nothing new for a Trump rally.
But the WAY he screamed it... well, it was downright awkward.
It was Musk's job to introduce former First Lady Melania Trump to the massive crowd, but before doing so he led the crowd in a "USA" chant that sounded something like Keanu Reeves might have done while in character for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Except without any of the charm or humor.
Either that, or someone who took a sedative before he got on the stage.
He then added a very Evita-style hand gesture that made the whole thing even more awkward before erupting into a shout of "Fuuuu*k!" for whatever reason.
Some couldn't help but be reminded of Howard Dean's awkward "yeeaaaaaaaah!" scream moment from 2004, which in retrospect was perfectly harmless—except to Dean's prospects in the presidential primary, of course.
Musk's on the other hand was in service of an openly Nazi-style event that will have no repercussions for him whatsoever. Interesting what can change over the course of 20 years.
Anyway, Musk's weird performance did not go over well at all with team normal, and there was lots of mockery.
Musk is also in some hot water at the moment—a bombshell Wall Street Journal report recently revealed that Musk, a government contractor, has been having regular chit-chats with Vladimir Putin for at least the past two years.
And the day after his weird "USA" chant, the Philadelphia District Attorney filed a lawsuit to stop Musk's scheme of awarding swing-state voters with $1 million prizes in exchange for signing some petition he's circulating.
This is America, so it's likely neither of these will be taken seriously enough to actually have consequences for Musk, but we can certainly dream.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
