Elon Musk faced strong backlash following the attempted assassination of Trump
After saying, “No one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” in response to what seemed to be a second attempt on Donald Trump’s life, Elon Musk received negative feedback.
According to the FBI, a gunman tried to kill the Republican presidential contender on Sunday night at his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf club. The Associated Press, citing a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office official, said that no injuries had been recorded.
“Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” was posted by user @cb_doge on X, previously Twitter, in response to the incident. In response, Musk—the billionaire proprietor of the Trump-supporting social media platform—retorted, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
By Monday morning, Musk’s post—which now seems to have been removed—had received 34.7 million views and 151,000 likes.
The billionaire was criticized in all four of the most popular comments on Musk’s article. Writer @AesPolitics1 penned: “What the f*** are you thinking? Before hitting “Post,” do you consider?” Former Republican congressman from Illinois, Adam Kinzinger, wrote: “Dude, I’m not kidding here, get help.”
This is hazardous and insane.” As stated by user @dogeofficialceo, “Nobody should be attempting to kill anyone.” Additionally, @theliamnissan, a user, said that “Elon Musk is a threat to national security.”
The 58-year-old suspect in Sunday’s shooting, Ryan Wesley Routh, seems to have been driven by dissatisfaction with Trump’s suggested approach to the conflict in Ukraine. Since then, X has put Routh’s account on hold.
Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July in an effort to kill Donald Trump. Before Secret Service snipers shot the former president dead, Crooks murdered one rallygoer, wounded two more, and cut his ear.
Other users on X chastised Musk for his post, claiming that it may be seen as an incitement to violence against Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, who have both denounced Sunday’s alleged assassination attempt.
The user @LakotaMan1, said, “Who else here feels that Elon Musk should be stripped of his security clearance, and U.S. citizenship and then deported back to his home nation of South Africa?”
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega stated that Musk’s tweet would be cause for the Secret Service to pay him a visit.
“Seriously, I can assure you as a former federal prosecutor that the U.S. Secret Service MUST visit Elon Musk right away in response to the comments he made below. That’s the standard in all cases comparable to that.”
Musk clarified in two further postings that his remarks were meant to be humorous. “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X,” he said. He continued in a another post, “It turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”
Musk’s assertion that “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” is untrue, despite the fact that two shooters had attempted to kill the former president in the last two months.
A guy in Virginia was taken into custody by the FBI in August after he reportedly threatened to set Harris on fire online.
A 27-year-old guy from California named Kuachua Xiong was sentenced to two years in federal prison in June after making threats to assassinate Biden and Harris. In Iowa in 2021, Xiong was stopped by the police. In his trunk was an AR-15 weapon and a “hit list”. He said to the authorities that he was traveling to take pictures of the White House while driving across the nation.
A 75-year-old man from Utah was shot and murdered by FBI officials last year as they were inspecting his house. The guy had reportedly made threats online to kill Biden and Harris while he was visiting Utah.
A 19-year-old Missourian was also taken into custody in 2023 after it was claimed that he crashed a U-Haul truck into barricades outside the White House. Among the many offenses for which he was accused was threatening to assassinate the president.
John Andrew Bazor Jr., 37, of Alabama, was detained by Secret Service officials in 2022 on suspicion of threatening Joe Biden. During one alleged phone conversation to the White House, he reportedly shouted, “I am coming to assassinate the president.”
