Former U.S. president Donald Trump ripped into Elon Musk during a rally on Saturday for allegedly lying about his voting history.
Trump says the Tesla CEO personally told him that Musk voted for him in 2016, but recent tweets and comments indicate that Musk supported Democratic candidates until recently.
“You know (Musk) said the other day, ‘Oh, I’ve never voted for a Republican,’” Trump said at the rally in Anchorage, Alaska. “I said, ‘I didn’t know that.’ He told me he voted for me. So he’s another bull—t artist.”
Last month, Musk tweeted that he voted for a Republican candidate for the first time when he supported Mayra Flores for Congress. Flores is the first Mexican-born woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives — a seat she won by flipping a traditionally Democratic-held seat in Texas.
Musk is also reported to have said during a Miami tech conference in May that he has overwhelmingly voted for Democratic politicians in his life, according to Business Insider, and may have never voted for a Republican candidate.
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Federal Elections Commission data shows that Musk even donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign against Trump.
At the rally, Trump also said that he predicted Musk’s Twitter takeover would fall through. In May, Trump said the SpaceX founder wouldn’t buy Twitter at such a “ridiculous price.”
“Elon is not going to buy Twitter. Where did you hear that before? From me,” Trump said.
Musk notified the SEC on Friday that he would be backing out of a US$44-billion deal to purchase the social media giant, claiming that Twitter had breached multiple provisions of their merger agreement. Twitter is planning on suing Musk in response.
Trump said Musk’s former agreement with Twitter was a “rotten deal.”
“He’s not going to be by buying it,” Trump said. “Although he might later. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen? He’s got a pretty rotten contract. I looked at his contract. Not a good contract.”
During his speech, Trump also peddled his own social media app, Truth Social.
Musk has not yet publicly commented on the former president’s remarks.
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