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.”
Oh goody. What kind of consequences are we talking?
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.
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
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:
When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.
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
Beginning to think he isn’t very honest, either.
Or a good businessman.
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 gotta say, I don’t think I can trust any candidate that takes money from this guy
I double dog dare you!
