New Orleans Donald Trump announced yet another run for president in order to be first out in the field. Yawn. No surprises there. Not even a headline in the New York Times on his announcement. That must have hurt him to his core. I’ve already declared that he’s my favorite for the Republican nomination, but that’s just me from the cheap seats, not the voting booth, so, frankly, I’m not sure he can even make the distance. The multiple courtroom battles that Trump is facing over his business, his finances, and just about everything else may continue to get more press than his pronouncements
The real winner in the medias obsession with billionaires is no longer Trump with his pretend money, but Elon Musk with his real billions making him for another minute the richest man in the world. Musk hasn’t announced for president, though clearly, he full well thinks he could – and should – do the job. He’s blocked by the little problem of being “natural born” in South Africa fair and square; no birther controversy there. That little problem is not stopping him from making the Musk circus the biggest show in town. Nor did it stop him from grabbing some news on the eve of the midterms urging his 100-million plus Twitter followers to vote Republican.
He’s in court now in Delaware, joining Tesla directors and company members, defending the fact that they gave him an enormous, eye-popping, world-shaking, record-breaking $50-billion-dollar payday based on stock options and incentives. A stockholder sued him. It should have been gross personal enrichment and profiteering, though it probably is about some regulatory or reporting technicality. They claim that they had to give him a boatload of money to keep him focused on Tesla, so his attention didn’t wander any farther away into his space ventures or his weapons-grade Twitter habit, which is also very Trump-like.
I’ve been betting that Twitter could be his Achilles heel and blow a hole in his fortune. He did have to go through with an overpriced $44 billion purchase of this crippled albatross with $30 billion out of his own pocket. Since then, it’s been a hot mess. He laid off half the staff. Advertisers have run for the hills over his free speech, let the fur fly, content moderation strategy. He tried to create a verification scheme which comics and crazies made mincemeat of within minutes, forcing him to pull it back, and exposing his double standard over humor, at least when it involves him.
The headlines were dueling over his expected Delaware trial problems versus his midnight emails to Twitter staff. Wanting to not only be the richest man in world, but to also win the Bad Boss of the Year award, he gave them less than 48-hours to sign a pledge that they would go “hard core” and walk the plank for him, or they should take it as their resignation and would receive three-months of severance pay. Couple that with his earlier pronouncement requiring workers to all comeback to the office, and, trust me, the staff will be dropping like flies.
Like the Trump show, the Musk show isn’t aging well, and the more headlines, the more people are going to crowd onto my bus that is wearing a “Twitter Sucks” sign on the back next to a “Muzzle Musk” bumper sticker. Let’s stop the clock on this clown’s fifteen minutes of fame.