With President-elect Donald Trump’s “First Buddy” Elon Musk teasing the possibility of purchasing liberal cable news channel MSNBC, it was just a matter of time before the X owner’s allies began piling on and suggesting the network’s stars are in freakout mode.
After the billionaire shared a sophomoric meme about him struggling to resist the “temptation” of buying MSNBC, a short clip of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow supposedly holding back tears over Musk’s tweet quickly went viral on social media. But no, Maddow did not break down and get emotional on the air over the head of “DOGE” joking about being her new boss.
So how did we get here? Following the news last week that NBC Universal’s parent company, Comcast, is splitting off MSNBC and a half-dozen other cable channels into a separate company called SpinCo, Musk — who has transformed X into a MAGA-boosting right-wing echo chamber — began floating the idea of obtaining the left-leaning network.
In a tweet on Friday, Donald Trump Jr. tagged Musk and said he had “the funniest idea ever,” linking to a post that wondered if the new owners of MSNBC “will figure out that lying non-stop to your audience is a lousy business model.” Asking “how much does it cost,” Musk later added: “The most entertaining outcome, especially if ironic, is most likely,” alongside a crying laughing emoji.
Meanwhile, Trump Jr. and popular podcaster Joe Rogan also trolled MSNBC’s primetime hosts, claiming they were coming for their jobs.
“If you buy MSNBC I would like Rachael Maddow’s job. I will wear the same outfit and glasses, and I will tell the same lies,” Rogan responded to Musk. “Since this is getting interesting I’ll throw my hat in the ring as well. I’ll mimic Lawrence O’Donnell… minus the castration of course. That’s a bridge too far,” Trump Jr. added.
Eventually, at 1:49 a.m. ET on Sunday, the meme-addicted Tesla CEO tossed out an image of a provocatively dressed woman trying to tempt a celibate priest, adding the MSNBC logo to the woman. “And lead us not into temptation,” Musk captioned the post.
Less than an hour after Musk’s late-night tweet, Alex Lorusso — a right-wing social media influencer and executive producer of MAGA “meme lord” Benny Johnson’s podcast — posted a short video of Maddow getting visibly emotional while airing Musk’s post on the air. The clip also showed MSNBC running the chyron: “Elon Musk Posts Dangerous Meme.”
Lorusso’s tweet soon took off, with many social media users believing Maddow actually cried on-air in reaction to Musk’s tweet and the possibility of the world’s richest man obtaining MSNBC.
In reality, the video of Maddow choking up is from a June 2018 segment in which the MSNBC star struggled to compose herself when reading a breaking story about the Trump administration separating young children from migrant families and placing them into “tender age” shelters. Unable to finish reading the story on air, she would then hand it over to her colleague O’Donnell.
While LoRossuo would quickly note in a follow-up tweet that his clip was altered and just a “meme,” it didn’t stop others from mocking Maddow while treating the video as legitimate.
“Watching Rachel Maddow freak out over Elon Musk posting memes about buying MSNBC made my morning,” MAGA influencer Isabella Maria DeLuca tweeted to her 450,000 followers.
“She’s crying because she knows her cash cow is coming to an end,” one user tweeted, while another exclaimed: “This is the best thing you’ll see today! @elonmusk is now the proud owner of the most liberal tears, maybe in history! The #winning never stops!”
A Community Note was eventually added to the clip noting that the “video has been altered” and originally came from “Maddow’s reaction to certain immigration policies under the Trump administration.”
But beyond the memes and altered video clips from Musk and his allies, the question remains as to whether the X owner is serious about buying MSNBC, the channel that has arguably been the most critical of Trump over the years.
While “Musk’s post shouldn’t be ignored” because he foreshadowed his purchase of Twitter in a similar fashion and the online jokes are only “adding to the anxiety that MSNBC staffers are feeling” post-election, “Comcast has not put a “for sale” sign on MSNBC’s door,” CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter reported.
“Comcast says the transaction will take about a year. At that point, could someone swoop in with a bid for MSNBC? It’s complicated,” Stelter added. “‘SpinCo’ is structured as a tax-free spinoff, and immediately divesting an asset would have tax implications that could forestall any such sale.
