According to recent reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk has had multiple secret conversations with Vladimir Putin since at least late 2022. While the content of these conversations hasn’t been made public, the revelations trigger major questions regarding the motivations behind Elon’s “Ukraine Peace Plan” in October 2022, his decision to sabotage a Ukrainian naval attack on Crimea by disconnecting Starlink access, and numerous pro-Russia and anti-Ukrainian statements. This news also comes amidst new information regarding the role of Russian oligarchs in financing Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
Elon Musk is a deeply flawed person that shows narcissistic and egomaniacal personality traits. Like Trump, Musk desperately craves the attention and approval of others. This often leads to bizarre publicity stunts and juvenile tweets, all of which are met with confusion from the public. Similar to Trump, this insecurity, ignorance, and weakness makes Musk open to manipulation by cunning political actors. I don’t know what was promised to Musk or what he was intimidated by during these secret phone calls but I’m going to guess that Putin stroked his fragile ego by reassuring him that everyone thought he was funny, smart, and cool, and likely told him that a nuclear war was coming unless Elon acted.
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