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Elon Musk has been vocal in his support of Republican nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, the billionaire shared that he’s fearful of what could happen to the X platform should Kamala Harris win.
During a wide-ranging interview, Tucker Carlson asked Elon Musk about how the United States government can allow the X platform — which Musk purchased in 2022 — to continue to operate as the free speech platform he purports it to be.
“In its current role in American society, they won’t,” Musk said. “They will try to shut it down by any means possible.”
“What do you mean by any means possible?” Carlson questioned.
Musk then noted he has been the subject of litigation from the Department of Justice that, in his opinion, feels politically motivated. He added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see similar action taken against the social media platform.
“They’ll try to pass laws. They’ll try to prosecute the company, prosecute me. The amount of lawfare that we see taking place is outrageous,” Musk said. “The Department of Justice, for example, launched a huge lawsuit against SpaceX for failing to hire asylum seekers. Not those granted asylum. Asylum seekers.
“There’s also a law called International Traffic and Arms Regulations that — because SpaceX develops advanced missile technology that can be used in nuclear ICBMs — we have to be very careful with who we hire. We can only hire someone if they’re a permanent resident or citizen. That’s what the ITAR law says. Then there’s another law that says that you cannot discriminate against asylum seekers.
“So we’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. We’re failing to hire asylum seekers, even though it is illegal for us to hire asylum seekers under ITAR rule … We have so many laws that it is actually impossible to do business, impossible to operate without being violating some law, because you have laws like the ones I just gave you, where both things are illegal. Yes, they contradict one another. They contradict one another,” he reiterated.
Elon Musk stated that the DOJ can only launch so many lawsuits per year, and questioned why that particular case was launched against his company.
“Because you own X,” Tucker Carlson replied. Musk agreed.
