- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised Elon Musk, calling the Tesla and SpaceX founder a “talented businessman.”
- Putin was discussing Russia’s space program after a failed moon landing last month.
- His comments come after Musk said last week that he refused an emergency request by the Ukrainian government to extend coverage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to Sevastopol in Crimea.
Tesla stock is down 2% today, and down 12% over the last 12 mo. The funny part is that Musk, unlike Trump, has more money than god and 100% doesn’t need Putin or anyone else for that matter. He’s also not shy about saying anything controversial or anything like that, so it is very, very weird what Putin might possibly have over Musk’s head. Unlike Trump who was rumored to have golden shower videos over his head, I highly doubt sex-stuff would bother Musk one bit. And of course money is immaterial to him at this point - Tesla stock could go to 0 and Musk would still be one of the richest people on the planet. And being as rich as he is, power comes naturally. Such a weird dynamic.
Well they both had connections with Epstein and have moved in similar circles- that whole thing smells like a long-running Kompromat operation targeting top industrialists and financiers, frankly.
As for Elon’s wealth making him untouchable? My dude, leverage is a thing and he is leveraging other people’s money and as such, he depends heavily upon those arrangements staying where they are. The interest on loan he took to fund the Twitter takeover (with other people’s money) is a lot, and whether or not Twitter can cover those costs is a very real question. This looks a lot like the debt traps Trump is in- they might both have money, but their money is tied up in assets it’ll cost them something to liquidate (and which they can’t readily get more of) and when that starts to look like cycling loans around to stay liquid, that adds up to pressure.