• MagicShel@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        Yeah I had too many hilarious thoughts all trying to squeeze out of my brain at once and it was a traffic jam.

        Is Musk out of money? That’s hilarious. Did Trump just suffer a huge stinging loss in both money and PR? Yes. Are these hits coming faster than Trump can field them? Obviously! They haven’t even managed to deal with Kamala yet and now this.

        Trump is off balance and against the ropes right now just as the Dems had a massive infusion of money and energy and this is the best I’ve felt in months. It won’t last. They’ll find their messaging and start punching back, and the excitement of Kamala stepping up will be hard to sustain until November. But right now we are on top, Trump is scared and angry, and it feels great.

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      It’s not even true. He still has a superPAC for trump, and he didn’t actually deny the figure. He just said the original story wasn’t accurate that he’s donating it to trump. But to the superPAC. So the story hasn’t changed. This is all spin. And they just printed it.

  • criitz@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    125
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    I have a feeling he’s still donating the money, but realized he was doing it too loudly and attracting attention to the oligopoly.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      41
      ·
      4 months ago

      Nah I think this is just another example of Elon Musk being impulsive and not thinking through the consequences of his statements.

      He can’t actually afford $45m a month. His wealth is in Tesla shares (which are difficult to draw done further both while he continues to try to fleece the company with an absurd pay package and also can’t risk destabilising the share price - its something of a house of cards with its value largely based on the future possibility of a flawed self drive tech) and Twitter (which took $20bn of his actual liquid assets and then debt and which he is running into the ground).

      Also he may be realising the PR mistake of backing trump when he runs an electric car company that is losing market share and valued speculatively rather than actual financials.

      His focus is really gettingnas much out of Tesla as hebcan before the markets turn on it.

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        That bit you said about realizing his PR mistake, I’ve got an interesting bit on that.

        I have a friend who is pretty conservative, we live in one of the most conservative areas in the US (Trump got close to 90% of the vote here). He went all in on Tesla stocks early on and then later he bought two of the Model S. One for him, one for his wife. Everywhere he went he had to defend that decision. “Huht huht, Jim’s done turned into a socialist and got himself a liberal car!” Dumb shit like that. For years the car was so rare around here that he got attention like he was cruising around in an old Model T Ford, only it was always negative attention.

        His was the only Tesla I ever seen in person for years.

        After Musk made his personality very public though, I see them everywhere. I’m in rural VA. These people have to charge them at home. I’ve never seen a charge station anywhere. He no longer gets attention for his car. I pass about 5 of them on the way to work every day.

        I know this information is mostly useless, but maybe his batshit insane interactions with the public have actually been good for electric cars, as silly as that might sound. To a lot of people out here in redneck land, the electric car is no longer a California pussy liberal car if it’s a Tesla. It’s a status symbol. “Look at me fellers, I’m doing putty good fer myself!”

          • theangryseal@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            4 months ago

            Oh I definitely don’t think that. Dude is clearly a moron, it just happened that way.

            I don’t know if he’s a moron or not really, if he just got lucky being born into money or whatever. I know he has some moron takes though, like nonstop.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    116
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    Man, don’t get complacent

    Anything could happen. 2 states could get their votes overruled by the Republican state legislatures. People could see that it’s close and start attacking poll workers. The machines could cheat. Fuckin anything could happen. The time when the rat is cornered is 1,000% the most dangerous time.

    Vote. Anything could happen. Treat it like a fuckin emergency, because it is.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      4 months ago

      The machines could be legally rigged by Biden and he could simply claim immunity when caught and so long as he earnestly believes it to be for the good of the nation no one can do anything.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          It’s a joke, it’s not that he would it’s that theoretically he could switch which is fairly scaremusing to me.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 months ago

          Hey, I didn’t make the dumb court decision but I can mock it frequently.

          As an aside, not everyone that disagrees with you is a Russian asset.

  • macniel@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    Uh and what has changed for the muskrat to suddenly grow a smidge of conscious? That trump may loose and he won’t be reimbursed by the orange president?

      • macniel@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        4 months ago

        Maybe the wrong word. I mean in the sense that Elon thought of getting something more out of his 45 mil a month to trump once the latter became again president.

      • JoShmoe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        The aid money for Ukraine. Or from selling government secrets.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      Not Trump may lose. is going to lose.

      This is going to be seen as the political equivalent of the 2017 patriots 28-3 come from behind win against the Falcons. Momentum has shifted, women now have an actual woman to vote for, and whoever the VP pick is, will seal the deal.

      Border issue:

      Republicans killed a bill that would have fixed it

      Abortion and IVF:

      Republicans are against both things which 80% of America are for.

      Honest to goodness Nazi playbook in Project 2025:

      Who the fuck would vote for that shit if the democrats actively show the public what’s in it?

      Old as dirt candidate:

      That’s the Orange Shit-Stain on the right.

        • MagicShel@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          Like everything else in that world it’s really fucking complicated. He didn’t get a check for $53 billion. He got a huge chunk of Tesla. First, I don’t know of he gets it all at once, but second, even if he does it takes something like 6 months before he’s allowed to sell it or use it as collateral due to being leadership at Tesla. Also the value is falling, so by the time he gets to sell it, it’ll be worth less than today.

          Also, I think this guy (or at least his companies) has monthly bills in the hundreds of millions between all his failing companies - boring company, starlink, Twitter. All of them are losing money. But what his personal finances look like I really can’t know.

          Caveat: this is my understanding pieced together from a bunch of sources I consider reliable, and upon which I relied for my earlier comment. I’m not an encyclopedia and could be wrong about some things.

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      4 months ago

      Maybe the Tesla board finally explained to him that Trump voters don’t buy their products.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      4 months ago

      There’s no smidge of conscience, this is merely self preservation after he became aware that he was drawing too much attention to it.

    • baru@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      4 months ago

      Uh and what has changed for the muskrat to suddenly grow a smidge of conscious?

      It’s best to really doubt what Musk says. Likely he’s still giving money but using weasel words to pretend he’s not because of the fallout.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    4 months ago

    oh fuck off. you literally volunteered that information without anyone asking and now that you’re getting massively clowned on it and the Brandon switch looking bad for your bet, you’re backing down like the big pussy you’ve always been you absolute weasel.

    will any of these manly men LARPers ever “man up”?

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    4 months ago

    So everyone against Trump hates him for… well lots of reasons, but most recent the blatant Trump support. He’s not going to win back anyone from that group, even with this backpedaling.

    And now everyone in the MAGA camp hates him because he has betrayed Dear Leader.

    So does this mean that everyone hates him now, or does he just have to rely on the support of apolitical middle-ground both-parties-are-the-same sorts?