When they think of Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, his fans think of a man who pushes the limits of space and automotive technologies. But his latest and boldest innovation: “troll philanthropy”, that is.
The increasingly infamous billionaire Elon Musk, who took to Twitter earlier this year to launch multiple conspiracy theories about his longtime nemesis, “nut job” journalist and author Jerome Corsi, launched a new Twitter account aimed at the author’s wife.
Corsi had written a book called Trump’s War on the US, alleging that president Donald Trump is being “shadow-hunted” by the deep state “lieutenants” who turned against him while he was the Republican nominee.
But Musk’s latest Twitter account did not tweet about Corsi’s book, or even the president himself. Instead, it spat all kinds of vitriol at Corsi’s wife, as well as “Trump’s war” and all those criticizing it.
Musk, who regularly suggests that his critics are profiting off of his misfortune, and makes outrageous statements about the “deep state” and “insanity” in various media, joined Twitter back in 2009. Since then, he has built up a massive following, which gives him a tremendous amount of clout to promote his controversial views. (And which prompts his critics to say that he should not receive free publicity.)
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Musk and Corsi are hardly strangers. They both have warred against each other since 2013, with various Twitter accounts providing both sides with ammunition and even advocating for the hiring of lawyers from Bannon-affiliated law firm William L Brown in the fight.
“He should [email protected]#$ yourself,” Corsi wrote at the time of the first battle. “I just found the writing and the entire content will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has read my book. Sorry about that, trolls. Glad that so many of you are suddenly interested in my writing. Very popular in 2017. But in 2018, nobody gives a damn.”
The latest Twitter war began after Musk called Corsi’s book “toxic” and a “waste of time”, in tweets aimed at Corsi’s wife Tricia. “That won’t stop the national media from relentlessly bashing your husband’s garbage book! Be aware – your attempts to legitimize Corsi’s book by pointing to it as fact are failing. Your real goal is to discredit our PR team and delay publication of our lawsuit against The Washington Post for its slanderous portrayal of Musk. They have hired many hired gun lawyers, getting nowhere. Don’t be fooled.”
The Tesla CEO added in another tweet: “Don’t understand why the W p crusaders don’t take the easy path, which is just to ignore this nonsense and deny its truth and truthfulness (according to its biased author!). Instead they’re doubling down. Just wait for the deluge. I hate losers and zealots.”
The fight only escalated in the last several days, with the creation of Musk’s new Twitter account, @Wwstate, which said: “I just think that it would be unethical if the Trump administration hired someone who published a book that called the president a liar. Also, if a judge wanted him to give testimony in open court, shouldn’t it be the judge’s call whether to do it?”
Corsi, despite serving one sentence in a Texas federal prison for wire fraud, faced no such retaliation for the book.