Musk, who seems to tweet with the same enthusiasm as he launches rockets, wasted no time in weighing in on the debate. In a late-night post, Musk quipped, “Kamala didn’t need to debate Trump. She had the ABC moderators do that for her while she babbled like an idiot.”
This was no throwaway tweet. It was a Muskian classic—short, brutal, and guaranteed to fuel the fires of political chaos for days to come. But the question remains: was the SpaceX and Tesla CEO onto something, or was he just firing off another spicy hot take to stir the pot?
In Musk’s defense, many viewers of the debate felt that the ABC moderators—David Muir and Linsey Davis—were a little too eager to jump in on Harris’s behalf. It wasn’t exactly the steel cage match that some had been hoping for.
As Trump began to trot out his usual talking points about the economy, immigration, and rally sizes, the moderators were quick to push back—sometimes before Harris even had a chance to respond. “Mr. Trump, that’s not accurate,” Muir said during one particularly heated exchange on the economy, leaving Harris standing there, smiling politely, as if she were simply waiting for her coffee order to be ready.
It didn’t take long for Twitter, led by none other than Musk himself, to light up with claims that the moderators were running interference for Harris. “Kamala didn’t need to bring her A-game,” Musk tweeted. “ABC was playing defense for her. If I were Trump, I’d ask for a 2v1 rematch.”
While some were quick to dismiss Musk’s comments as yet another instance of the billionaire trolling the political establishment, others admitted that the debate did seem more like a team sport at times—with Harris and the moderators forming an unlikely tag team.
Of course, Musk didn’t stop at criticizing the moderators. His real beef was with Harris herself, who, according to him, “babbled like an idiot” during much of the debate.
Now, to be fair, Harris has long been known for her ability to dodge tough questions with a combination of well-placed smiles, vague platitudes, and her trademark cackle. And while some viewers see this as political savvy, Musk clearly wasn’t impressed.
“She had a chance to explain her position on the economy, on immigration, on Afghanistan, and instead she just deflected,” Musk said in an interview after his tweet went viral. “It’s like watching someone in a spelling bee who can’t spell, so they just keep repeating the word and hoping no one notices.”
Harris’s debate strategy, which seemed to focus more on attacking Trump than on defending her own record, played right into Musk’s critique. When asked about the Biden administration’s handling of inflation, for example, Harris quickly pivoted to Trump’s tariffs, calling them a “Trump sales tax,” before launching into a tirade about his handling of the Capitol riot.
“If I were on that stage,” Musk mused in a follow-up tweet, “I’d just give direct answers. None of this politician nonsense. It’s not that hard. Just say what you mean.”
Of course, the idea of Musk debating anyone—let alone Donald Trump—might sound ridiculous, but there’s no denying that he would bring a unique style to the debate stage. For one, Musk has a flair for dramatic statements that leave people talking for weeks. Remember the time he sent a car into space? Or when he casually announced plans to colonize Mars?
If nothing else, we can imagine Musk responding to tough debate questions with a flamethrower in one hand and a Tesla autopilot demo in the other. And you have to admit, that would be far more entertaining than watching a candidate dodge questions with the grace of a figure skater.
But perhaps the most interesting part of Musk’s critique is the implication that he could do better than both Trump and Harris. After all, Musk is no stranger to political commentary, and his recent foray into the world of social media ownership has made him a kind of accidental politician.
So, what would a Trump vs. Musk debate look like? For starters, it would probably involve a lot of shouting—and a lot of interruptions. But Musk would likely bring a level of unpredictability that even Trump, with his off-the-cuff style, might find difficult to handle.
In fact, some Twitter users began joking that Musk should throw his hat into the ring and run for president in 2028. “If Elon can take on Jeff Bezos and the moon at the same time, surely he can take on Trump,” one tweet read.
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