this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
276 points (96.6% liked)

News

35915 readers
3159 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview with NBC News on Saturday, said there would be "serious consequences" if billionaire Elon Musk funds Democratic Party candidates to run against Republicans who vote for Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill.

Trump declined to say what those consequences would be in the phone interview, and went on to add that he had not had discussions about whether to investigate Musk.

Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, "I would assume so, yeah."

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] decapitae@sh.itjust.works 138 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Because in a functional democracy, threatening opposition is encouraged and often leads to a healthy society. /s

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 70 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I’m starting to think his goal might not be a healthy society.

[–] FrChazzz@lemmus.org 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I have young kids. They often say things like “if I were president, I would—“ and then say some borderline totalitarian nonsense like “make it illegal to put pickles on burgers” or some other thing that is self-focused and completely misunderstands the nature of the presidency.

Which is all to say that Trump holds the same view of the presidency that a five-year-old does. And he occupies the office. Awesome.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 27 points 8 months ago (2 children)

He said it himself:

When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/575962/donald-trump-tells-biographer-hes-same-now-first-grade

[–] oxysis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 8 months ago

Honestly he was probably better as a first grader because he hadn’t learned everything about how to be an unrelenting asshole yet

[–] dalekcaan@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

One of the few times I 100% believe him

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

Beginning to think he isn’t very honest, either.

Or a good businessman.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He'd sorta have a point about people shouldn't be able to just dump a few millions on elections to influence them, but since Elmo did literally that for trump it's not only too late, it's also hypocritical as shit

Which makes sense because for Republicans it's always them accusing Democrats of what they are doing themselves

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 65 points 8 months ago (50 children)

If any Democrat accepts funds from Musk they've lost my vote.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 55 points 8 months ago

If they take his money and then release a public statement calling him a nazi piece of shit who will never have any influence in their office I'd allow it. Bonus points if they promise Musk they won't do that before doing it.

Otherwise, yeah. Musk needs to be a Kanye level pariah at least for what he's done.

load more comments (49 replies)
[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 52 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The fact that a billionaire bought an election and can easily buy it again is so plain for all to see and it is repugnant. The rich shouldn't be.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 months ago

That last sentence, I parsed it 2 ways and both are appealing.

[–] mossberg590@lemmy.world 35 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Musk is going to fund Republican candidates in the primaries, non-MAGA Republicans. The idea he would fund Dems is laughable. It will be interesting to see which way the Republicans go, money or MAGA.

[–] Zenith@lemm.ee 7 points 8 months ago

Non maga repugs are terrified of Trump and won’t sand up to him though, there’s no reason to fund them either

[–] evenglow@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Trump doesn't want to get blamed when Democrats start winning elections. If it happens Musk will gloat for credit and the finger pointers will say Trump should not have pissed off Musk.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 7 points 8 months ago

I bet this is the right answer. D's are already winning more.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mercano@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And, since the Supreme Court has ruled money = speech with the Citizens United ruling, Trump has just set Elon up for a First Amendment case if anything happens. One that the taxpayer will likely foot the bill to defend.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 8 months ago

Threatening action as a government official is taking an action. Under the rules of CU, he has standing. Then again, the Roberts court doesn't care about stare decisis or the letter of the law or the spirit of the law, just what can keep the grift flowing.

[–] TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure billionaires will be funding Democrats hard, which is why we need to treat the party like neo-feudalists from now on. No matter what they say, they cannot be trusted to do anything but further raid the working class. They're more of a long term enemy than Trump, and we cannot give them an easy time. They will never be saviors, only new masters.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

they actually fund both, but they fund the gop more when they can get tax cuts, or thier investment wont get taxed to hell.

The game is fundamentally different now in a worse way. We're looking at a future of neo feudal politicians once this fascist flame burns through the nation. The end of the US as a unified whole is a genuine possibility. Feudalists gaining control and creating a hellish dystopia with the power of the empire is the alternative. Post Trump America will be never be as successful a liberal democracy as 2024 America was, and 2024 America was absolutely bottom of the barrel.

America needs to burn and probably will, but that will more likely to be awful than not. It will be a monumental lift to bring about a positive future.

I gotta say, I don't think I can trust any candidate that takes money from this guy

[–] 60d@lemmy.ca 7 points 8 months ago
[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oh goody. What kind of consequences are we talking?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›