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Trump surrogate Elon Musk sends creepy tweet to Taylor Swift as campaign goes beyond weird
By Rex Huppke, USA TODAY,
2 hours ago
In politics, it's always good to lean hard into a wildly dishonest claim that dehumanizes a whole swath of the population while having one of your top surrogates mock a stratospherically beloved pop star with a creepy comment that sounds like a sexist divorced dad hitting on a younger woman.
Is that right? OK, maybe that’s not right. That sounds like bad political maneuvering.
Harris’ broadly praised performance was followed by an endorsement from Swift , one of the most influential figures in America: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
Things went bad for Trump, then Musk came along and made them worse
Trump at Presidential Debate Getty
For Trump, the bad-debate/Swift-endorsement combo was the political equivalent of losing a prize fight then leaving the arena and having a piano dropped on your head.
Swift's endorsement was calm and kind, unlike everything Trump does
Swift posted a thoughtful endorsement showing respect for those who disagree and encouraging people to read up on the candidates reach their own decisions. Musk responded with the equivalent of: “HAH HAH I WILL PUT A BABY IN YOU IF YOU WANT SILLY CAT LADY!!”
After Taylor Swift extended her support to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the race for the White House race, Elon Musk responded to the musician's statement with an offer to give her a child. Mike Coppola, Getty Images for MTV / Jack Gruber, USA TODAY NETWORK
Musk’s loutish post is emblematic of the toilet bowl Trump’s campaign is currently circling. (Correction: The campaign has already circled the bowl, moved through the sewer and is now in the sludge pit outside the wastewater treatment plant.)
Lies about pets being eaten show Trump's campaign is beyond weird
In the days leading up to the debate, Trump and Co. had been peddling a grotesque and wildly xenophobic lie that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets. It was based on nothing more than racist right-wing fever dreams. Officials in the Ohio town at the center of some of these lies made that perfectly clear.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he bellowed , like an older relative you wish would stop coming to family dinners.
Trump and Vance need to stop trying to make 'pet eating' happen
It seemed hard to believe. A candidate at a presidential debate was ranting and raving about something wholly fabricated and, worse yet, a dehumanizing canard that would show up on page 1 of “How to Be a Racist.”
But there Trump was. And after the debate, in the media spin room, there was his running mate doubling-down on the offensive bull , telling CNN: “First of all, city officials have not said it's not true. They said they don't have all the evidence. No evidence.”
Sure, Jan. No evidence. A clear sign something you made up definitely happened.
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None of this is the sign of a campaign doing well – quite the opposite
If you’re insisting dogs and cats are being eaten by people you’re opportunistically trying to denigrate, you’re losing. Period. Nobody is buying this hogwash. All it’s doing is forcing hard-working American writers like me to waste time looking up synonyms for “weird” and “awful.” (Found some! How about “freakish” and “abominable”?)
I can’t quite imagine how the Trump campaign is going to follow up “THEY’RE EATING OUR DOGS!” and Musk going full-creeper on one of the most popular women in the world.
But hey, the week is young. And they’ve got Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on their team. I’m sure they’ll find a path downward.
Under Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats are the party of high prices and open borders. The past four years have not been easy on hard-working Americans. From record-high prices, increased regulation, and the loss of U.S. energy independence – Americans are worse off under the Biden-Harris administration.San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris’ record speaks for itself. As Vice President, Harris has cast the most tie-breaking votes in Senate history to greenlight the Democrats’ most radical, inflationary priorities. These votes include trillions of dollars’ worth of reckless Democrat spending and tax increases included in the so-called Inflation “Reduction” Act and American Rescue Plan which collectively bankrupted our economy, as well as the confirmation of radical far-Left activist judges who support defunding the police and sanctuary cities.
who
35m ago
Taylor Swift ain’t all that. Put in some clothes and try to get a real job Such a pitiful waste of air!!
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