'Driverless Cars That Crash' and 'Rocketships to Nowhere': Trump Hits Back at Elon Musk in Escalating Feud
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Getty (2) Elon Musk (L); Donald Trump
One day after Elon Musk wished over social media for Donald Trump to "sail into the sunset," the former president is hitting back.
Trump, 76, took to his alternative social media platform Truth Social late Tuesday night, and in a series of posts, shared his thoughts about the Tesla mogul, 51 — and Musk's controversial decision to renege on buying Twitter.
"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it…" Trump wrote in the first post.
"…Now Elon should focus on getting himself out of the Twitter mess because he could owe $44 billion for something that's perhaps worthless. Also, lots of competition for electric cars!" he added.
RELATED: Elon Musk Says 'It's Time' for Donald Trump to 'Hang Up His Hat and Sail Into the Sunset'
Trump then mulled in the final post about why Musk was "allowed to break the $15 million stock purchase barrier on Twitter without any reporting?"
"That is a very serious breach! Have fun Elon and @jack, go to it!" he wrote, bringing Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey into the conversation.
Trump's comments are the latest in a back-and-forth that he and Musk have waged, mostly over social media.
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But at a political rally in Alaska on Saturday, the former President spoke about a claim Musk made in which he wrote on Twitter that he had recently voted for a Republican for the first time last month, according to The Washington Post.
"He said the other day, 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican.' I said, 'I didn't know that,'" Trump said. "He told me he voted for me, so he's another bull— artist."
On Monday, Musk responded by replying to a Breitbart News tweet that posted Trump's comments from Saturday.
"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset," he wrote. "Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency."
Elon Musk/Twitter
Trump's recent comments come amid news that Musk had terminated his $44 billion dollar Twitter deal, alleging that the company was in "breach of multiple provisions" of an original agreement. (In a statement provided to PEOPLE last Friday, the Twitter Board said, "We are committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plan to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.")
Acrimony between the two businessmen has not always been the case.
Before backing out of his Twitter deal, Musk said in May that if his deal to acquire the social-media platform went through as planned, he would reverse the permanent ban against Trump that was put in place following the riots at the U.S. Capitol.
RELATED: Elon Musk Says He Would Lift Twitter Ban on Donald Trump: 'I Think That Was a Mistake'
"Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts … I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump," Musk said at FT Live's Future of the Car conference, according to a CNBC report. "I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice."
