Former president Donald Trump mocked Tesla executive Elon Musk for pulling out of a $44bn deal to buy Twitter – and for revealing that he had not voted for him.
Mr Trump made the remarks while speaking at a rally in Alaska for Republican candidates and said that he would fight what he considered left-wing censorship while also promoting his own media platform Truth Social.
“Another one of our highest priorities under a Republican Congress will be to stop left wing censorship and to restore free speech in America”, he said. Mr Trump started Truth Social after he was banned from Twitter in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Mr Musk announced on Friday that he would not buy the social media platform and accused the company of misleading him about the nature of the company.
“Elon, Elon is not gonna buy Twitter,” Mr Trump told supporters in Anchorage, saying that he had said that before. “Well, he might later who the hell knows what's going to happen? He's got a pretty rotten contract, elegant, his contract, not a good contract.”
Mr Trump also blasted the executive for saying that he had not voted for Republicans in the past. In May, Mr Musk said that he planned to vote Republican for the first time in 2022 despite previously voting for Democrats in the past, citing President Joe Biden’s support for labour unions.
Mr Musk has praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the past. Mr DeSantis is considered a potential competitor to Mr Trump in a 2024 Republican presidential primary.
But Mr Trump criticised Mr Musk for saying that he would vote for a Republican for the first time.
“You know, he said the other day, oh, I'd never voted for a Republican”, he said. “I said, I didn't know that. He told me he voted for me. So he's another bulls*** artist, but he's not going to be buying it.”
