Elon Musk deletes joke about 'no one assassinating Kamala Harris' after second plot on Trump

In the latest instance of Twitter/X and its owner Elon Musk influencing US political discourse, the tech billionaire has received widespread condemnation over a tweet in which he claimed “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” following the news that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had survived a second assassination attempt in just two months.

Trump, who was pictured with a bloodied ear after being shot at during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13 July, was playing a round of golf at his Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday when Secret Service agents spotted the butt of an AK-47-style assault rifle in the bushes between 300 to 500 yards away from the former president.

Ryan Routh has since been identified as the suspect and is now in custody.

While political figures around the world condemned another act of “political violence”, Musk’s contribution came in the form the reply to a tweet asking “why they want to kill Donald Trump” with the comment that “no one is even trying” to assassinate the current US president and vice president.

Unsurprisingly, many people soon slammed the Tesla and SpaceX founder for the since-deleted post, with many branding the entrepreneur a “threat to national security”:

Following the criticism, Musk commented: “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”

"Joking" about two political figures not yet being the subject of assassination attempts isn’t really something many people find “hilarious”, Elon.

He added: “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”

That tweet has since been given a proposed Community Note, in which an anonymous user presented the “alternative fact” that Musk is “just *not* funny”.

While the crowdsourced feature is designed to provide “additional context” to posts considered “potentially misleading”, we’d be inclined to agree.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.