Former US president Donald Trump called Tesla CEO Elon Musk a "bulls**t artist" at a political rally in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday, over different accounts of whether Musk voted for Trump.
"He [Musk] said the other day 'I've never voted for a Republican,' I said 'I didn't know that he told me he voted for me,'" Trump said at the event in support of US congressional candidate Sarah Palin. "So he's another bulls**t artist."
Voting Republican
"I voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican," Musk said on June 15 of his vote for Texas's 34th Congressional District, which usually had Democratic control. "Massive red wave in 2022."
When pressed if he would vote for a Republican in a presidential election, Musk said that it was to be decided, but was leaning toward Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis hasn't announced his candidacy, but it has long been speculated that he may face Trump in the Republican primaries.
"In the past, I voted Democrat because they were (mostly) the kindness party," Musk tweeted in May. "But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican."
Terminated Twitter deal
At the rally, Trump's also commented on Musk's ostensible pull out from his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, because the social media company had failed to provide information about fake accounts.
"Elon, Elon is not going to buy Twitter," said Trump. "Where did we hear that before? From me."
Musk had previously warned that he would walk away from the deal over a lack of data on spam and fake accounts, which Musk and some analysts say may be higher than the 5% claimed by Twitter. Trump noted at the rally that there were many fake accounts on Twitter, saying there were "Lots of them. He's got a mess."
"He's not going to be buying it. although he might later, who the hell knows what's going to happen," Trump assessed. "He's got a pretty rotten contract —I looked at his contract, not a good contract."
Truth Social
After bashing Musk's Twitter deal, Trump took the opportunity at the rally not only to promote Palin but his social medial application Truth Social as well.
"Another one of our highest priorities under a Republican congress will be to stop left-wing censorship and to restore free speech in America," said Trump. "And go out by the way while I'm here and sign up now for Trush Social, it's hot as a pistol."According to Newsweek, when Musk first announced that his acquisition of Twitter would be terminated, Trump posted in all capital letters on Truth Social " The Twitter deal is dead, long live the 'Truth.'"