Summary

Donald Trump mocked Time magazine after its latest cover depicted Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk, questioning if the magazine was “still in business.”

While pretending indifference, the cover likely irritated him, as he was ecstatic just months ago when Time named him 2024 Person of the Year.

Speaking at the White House, Trump tried to dismiss the cover’s implications and praised Musk for uncovering “fraud and corruption.”

Despite his criticism, Trump has long craved Time’s approval, even displaying a fake cover of himself.

    • Emberleaf@lemmy.ml
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      12 hours ago

      The exact same scenario played out with Steve Bannon, and Trump fired him. I’m don’t see Elon faring much better.

      • frezik
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        12 hours ago

        Musk and some more background people likely saved the Trump campaign from financial ruin. He couldn’t be rid of them if he wanted to.

        He could shift his soft power approaches against Musk. That is, if Trump’s understanding of soft power were better than Cersi Lannister.

        • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          He couldn’t be rid of them if he wanted to.

          Right, because without money, he’d… stop being in office?

          Of course The Idiot would never just stab someone in the back.

        • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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          12 hours ago

          However, Trump doesn’t generally seem to care about how much someone has helped him in the past if one minor slight shows up. If Musk can’t help him at this very instance, he’d be open to throwing him under the bus. He abandons people fast

          • frezik
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            10 hours ago

            Musk and his friends understand soft power better than Trump does. That is, understand it at all. They have more options if that happens.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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          12 hours ago

          Musk and some more background people likely saved the Trump campaign from financial ruin. He couldn’t be rid of them if he wanted to.

          His campaign is over. He is president now. And he can do whatever he wants… and has been doing exactly that.

          My sister speculated that somebody (probably trump…) uploaded something far worse than “the pee-pee tape” to twitter and musk inherited that when he bought the site.

          But even that only goes so long and… trump has SCOTUS backing to send seal team six after whoever he wants.

          • growsomethinggood ()@reddthat.com
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            10 hours ago

            On your last point, I’m surprised that Musk isn’t more visibly worried about assassination attempts. He’s really not making friends with anyone in government or otherwise, and the one guy backing him is a bad mood away from testing his full immunity powers and seizing several billions for himself. Like, if I had that kind of fuck off money, I sure wouldn’t be putting my neck on the line for this.

            • FoxyFerengi@lemm.ee
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              10 hours ago

              Musk seems like the type to be enamored with dead man switches. Although, I’m not sure if he’s smart enough to actually use any

            • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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              10 hours ago

              That’s why I kind of agree with “the dumbest thing (some troll has) ever heard speculated”. musk clearly has enough dirt that it has kept his head attached after all the “president musk” memes.

          • breakingcups@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            My sister speculated that somebody (probably trump…) uploaded something far worse than “the pee-pee tape” to twitter and musk inherited that when he bought the site.

            That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard speculated

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          He’s rich so far, but he really seems to be alienating his consumer customer base. If he keeps this up, his car company could crash as fast as it grew, and maybe his other customers will start reacting

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            9 hours ago

            He’s worth over $400 billion. He could literally set warehouses full of cash on fire and not notice.