Its been a wild few days for tech billionaire Elon Musk.
According to the Journal, Musk has been chatting with Putin since 2022.
The Journal based its reporting on conversations with officials in the U.S., Europe, and Russia.
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk participates in a town hall-style meeting to promote early and absentee voting at Ridley High School on October 17, 2024 in Folsom, Pennsylvania.© Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Its been an open secret in powerful political circles for years.
What do the worlds richest man and a brutal authoritarian have to discuss?
Quite a bit, as it turns out.
Theyve reportedly chatted about business, personal issues, and the state of the world.
Musk is an important government contractor with a security clearance and hands in a lot of different companies.
Musks Starlink has proved an incredible battleground tool.
The satellite internet service has been instrumental in keeping lines of communication open in the war in Ukraine.
But they dont always work like they should.
But the terminals keep popping up in Russia as well, arriving there from other countries.
And Moscow has been using them for war.
When Starlink catches the rogue terminals, it cuts them off.
According to the Journal, Musk and Putin have chatted about Starlink during their various private conversations.
Putin asked Musk to not activate Starlink terminals in Taiwan.
He wanted the billionaire to do it as a personal favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Again, Musk has a security clearance.
Hes an important military contractor whom the Pentagon relies on to efficiently conduct the business of war.
Hes also a reckless fool who has involved himself with a foreign dictator and injected himself into domestic politics.
The man is anational security risk, full stop.
I dont know if that story is true.
I think it should be investigated.
I don’t know that that story is true.
I think it should be investigated.
If the story is true … that would be concerning.
And Musk is doing his damndest to make that happen.
The billionaire has been spending money on the Trump campaign like its going out of style.
Hes never been politically neutral, but hes also never been this personally involved in a candidate.
Signing the petition also enters people into a lottery with the chance to win $1 million.
If that sounds weird and illegal, youre not the only one who thinks that.
After Musk announced the sweepstakes, the Justice Departmentsent a letter of warningto his America PAC.
The DOJ told the PAC that the lottery may violate federal election law.
But Musk is still giving away prizes.
Holland grinned in his photo above a link directing people to sign the petition.
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