Chasten Buttigieg, husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, had a pithy response to the news Elon Musk is allegedly donating millions to the Donald Trump election campaign.
Buttigieg simply reposted a tweet Musk posted in March in which he said, “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.”
Buttigieg’s retweet comes after the Wall Street Journal ran a story earlier this week. It claims that Musk plans to donate $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super political-action committee: America PAC.
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The super-PAC has already attracted other big tech donors, including Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded the software company Palantir with gay entrepreneur Peter Thiel (who has contributed sizeable sums to JD Vance).
However, if true, it’s unclear when the Musk donations (described by the WSJ as “an extraordinary sum”), will begin. No financial filings have reported the donations as yet.
Musk himself responded to a tweet about the story by posting a meme with the word “fake gnus”.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
Endorsing Trump and leaving California
What’s clearer is Musk’s endorsement of Trump. Following the assassination attempt on Trump last Saturday, Musk posted, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.”
I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024
Chasten Buttigieg is not the only person unimpressed by Musk’s backing of Trump. Earlier this week, Musk announced he planned to move his companies, SpaceX and X, out of California. The move came after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that prevents teachers from outing trans kids to parents.
Musk has a trans child but has spoken out against gender-affirming care for minors. He posted on X: “This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”
Musk said X will move to Austin.
And 𝕏 HQ will move to Austin https://t.co/LUDfLEsztj
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
Governor Newsom, in response, reposted a social media post from Donald Trump from his time in the White House. In it, the former President suggested Musk had begged him for help.
You bent the knee. pic.twitter.com/5CNAWvZFSv
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 16, 2024
Pre-Trump emojis on X
Mashable revealed yesterday that certain pro-Trump hashtags on X now come with automatic emojis in some parts of the world. When someone writes #MAGA, a small photo of a defiant Trump fist-pumping the air appears alongside it. If you go to the search page for #Trump2024, small American flags rain down the page.
An X spokesperson said, “This is a commercially available product.” This suggest it’s been paid for by the Trump campaign or one of its supporting organizations.
Elon Musk’s X goes full pro-Trump with custom hashtag emoji icons#MAGA now appears with a pic of Trump with his first in the air#Trump2024 appears with an American flag
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) July 18, 2024
if you click on the last one, American flags rain down on the search page
read: https://t.co/tSkXGFYSC8 pic.twitter.com/bSbzLEm935
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