EXCLUSIVE — Billionaire businessman Elon Musk is standing by the sentiment he expressed in a since-deleted post that Democrats weren’t the ones being targeted by would-be assassins when reached by the Washington Examiner.
Musk drew rebuke on his social media platform X hours after former President Donald Trump was the target of a second assassination attempt by pondering why “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
“My point is that, over the course of four years in power, no one has tried to assassinate [President Joe] Biden or Kamala [Harris] and no one will, because they are just puppets of the system and will simply be replaced by another puppet who reads what’s on the teleprompter,” Musk wrote in a message to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Musk added that Trump was different than Biden or Harris because he was not simply a “puppet” who could be replaced.
The since-deleted post also caught the attention of the Secret Service, which is charged with protecting President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk, and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence,” the Secret Service said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees.”
The SpaceX and Tesla owner said the Secret Service had not personally contacted him about the post and that the federal government “had not raised this.”
When asked why he deleted the post, Musk said, “It was dumb.”
On Monday, Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), made a nearly identical statement to Musk’s, saying, “No one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” during his speech at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta.
“I know it’s popular on a lot of corners of the Left to say that we have a both sides problem. And I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right,” Vance said. “But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have — no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months.”
Vance’s observation was the subject of debate during the White House’s press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“People entrust in you to do just that — entrust in you to make decisions that’s going to move this country forward, to make it the great country that it is,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing. “When you have that type of language out there, it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because people look up to that particular national leader, and they listen to you when you are a national leader.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, survived a second assassination attempt Sunday while golfing at his club in South Florida. The incident was the second in almost three months after a failed first attempt during a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally in July.
Last month, Trump divulged that he would offer Musk a Cabinet position or advisory role in his administration “if he would do it.”
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“He’s a very smart guy. I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He’s a brilliant guy,” Trump told Reuters.
Musk endorsed Trump over Harris in July.
