Elon Musk says Trump should “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset”, too old to run for president again

“He said the other day, ‘Oh, I never voted for a Republican.’ I said, ‘I did not know,’ Trump said at the Anchorage rally for Alaska Republicans Sarah Palin and Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “He told me he voted for me, so he’s probably a jerk.”

Musk responded to a video of Trump’s statements in a series of tweets Monday night.

“I do not hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset,” Musk twitret.

Musk also urged Democrats to “suspend the attack” and not focus on whether Trump decides to run for re-election to the White House.

“Do not make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the presidency,” said Musk, who previously noted that he would rather support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024 if the Republican were to run for president.

While again offering his support to DeSantis, the billionaire stressed that Trump would be too old to be president.

“Trump would be 82 by the end of the term, which is too old to be CEO of anything, let alone the United States,” Musk wrote.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.

Musk’s tweets against Trump come as Twitter lays the groundwork for a legal battle with the billionaire to enforce a takeover it wasn’t even sure it wanted. As the company’s shares fell another 11.3 percent after Musk announced on Friday that he was withdrawing from the deal to buy Twitter, the board of the social media giant is expected to sue in the Delaware Court of Chancery as soon as this week to keep Tesla. . CEO on the hook.

Musk’s lawyers claim he has the right to drop the $ 44 billion deal because Twitter has not given him enough information about the company’s business.

Twitter shares plunge as they prepare for a messy legal battle with Elon Musk

The back-and-forth between Musk and Twitter unfolds as Trump continues to rage against the House of Representatives’ select committee investigating the January 6, 202, uprising. became increasingly desperate to hold on to power. The committee is expected to argue that Trump used the date of the congressional vote, January 6, 2021, to block a peaceful transfer of power.

The January 6 hearing is expected to focus on the link between militants, the White House

Shortly after it became known that Musk was buying up Twitter, he said in May that he wanted to reverse the company’s ban on Trump. Twitter had banned Trump’s account after the Capitol uprising, citing “the risk of further incitement to violence.” Although Trump has said he would not join Twitter again, Musk said the move was “a mistake.”

“I do not think it was right to ban Donald Trump. “I think it was a mistake,” Musk said at a May 10 event hosted by the Financial Times. “It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

On Saturday, Trump, who has continued to make false allegations of electoral fraud, said a top priority for Republicans should be to “stop left-wing censorship and restore freedom of expression in America.” When he urged supporters to sign up for his social media company, Truth Social – “It’s hot as a gun” – Trump turned his attention to Musk and Twitter.

“Who the hell knows what’s going to happen?” in Trump. “He has a pretty rotten contract. I looked at his contract, not a good contract.

Trump then lashed out at Musk for allegedly telling the former president that he had voted for him. Musk donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016, according to data from the Federal Election Commission, and twitret in May that he voted for Clinton in 2016 and President Biden in 2020. Musk also wrote that he voted for Republican Mayra Flores, who won a special election last month in South Texas’ heavily Latin American, skewed 34th Congress district.

When a conservative media personality challenged Musk’s tweet and said that Trump should “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset”, the billionaire said that the former president had “too much drama” with him.

“Do we really want a bull in a Chinese store situation every single day !?” Musk wrote. “I also think the legal maximum age for starting the presidency should be 69.”

There is no upper age limit for candidates seeking the presidency. If Trump were to run and be GOP nominated, he would be 78 years old on election day. Biden would be around two weeks back to his 82nd birthday on election day in November 2024.

Musk went on to argue that if DeSantis were to field Biden, “then DeSantis would easily win – he does not even have to campaign.”

Rachel Lerman, Yiwen Lu, Jacqueline Alemany and Hannah Allam contributed to this report.