Elon Musk has angered liberals while triggering praise from Republicans after posting a video of himself hip-firing his enormous Barrett .50-caliber machine gun.
The 23-second clip, which shows the world’s richest man fire six rounds, is among a series of highly political posts he has shared with his 158 million followers on X which appeal to a right-wing fanbase.
Musk, 52, is seen wearing all-black attire including leather shoes as he stands in a field firing three rounds shown in slow motion, followed by another three rounds at full speed.
His post comes on the heels of a heated confrontation with liberal comedian Larry David over their conflicting views on gun control laws, following the Uvalde massacre earlier this year.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm comic berated the billionaire over his Republican affiliations, equating them with a desire to ‘murder kids in schools’ while at the wedding of their celebrity friends Ari Emanuel and Sarah Staudinger on May 27.
Elon Musk has angered liberals while triggering praise from Republicans after posting a video of himself hip-firing his enormous Barrett .50-caliber machine gun
Liberal comedian Larry David confronted Musk at a star-studded wedding earlier this year, equating his pro-gun views with a desire to ‘murder kids in schools’. (Pictured left: David at a pre-wedding dinner, and right: Musk at the ceremony)
But such interactions haven’t deterred Musk from provoking more outrage online – along with equal measures of admiration.
His recent gun-toting video, which was viewed 80.6 million times on X with 840,000 ‘likes’ within two days, was blasted by liberals.
Retired Irish rugby player Gordon D’Arcy described Musk as a ‘muppet’ for using his ginormous platform to glamorize deadly weapons.
‘One of the most influential people on the planet.. trying to make guns look cool (or I’m missing the point of this tweet),’ D’Arcy said. ‘What a muppet.’
Others described the Twitter tsar as ‘a dork’, ‘a loser’ and ‘an idiot’, – with his video illustrating ‘a crisis of masculinity’ and ‘one of the dumbest things ever seen’ on X.
Another social media user said the video was the latest example of the South African-born tech boss going ‘full MAGA’.
But the video was also greeted with adulation – with several people praising Musk’s technique, and others encouraging him to fire from his shoulder instead of the hip.
One X user described Musk as ‘the best billionaire out there’, while a Colorado pro-gun lobbyist said: ‘I knew I liked this dude’.
Another commenter, from Arkansas, described the SpaceX founder as ‘extremely relatable’ for showing his allegiance to the Second Amendment.
One of the most influential people on the planet.. trying to make guns look cool (or I’m missing the point of this tweet). What a muppet https://t.co/uFddFRuiha
— Gordon D’Arcy (@Gordonwdarcy) September 30, 2023
ppl rip on elon but in all honestly he’s really just being the man. if i was a billionaire i would buy my favorite social media site and hip fire a barrett. extremely relatable https://t.co/fd96ONxXhf
— big content guy (@bigcontentguy) September 30, 2023
‘People rip on Elon but in all honestly he’s really just being the man,’ they said. ‘If I was a billionaire I would buy my favorite social media site and hip-fire a Barrett.’
Animator Doug TenNapel praised Musk for the video, while deriding his tech boss contemporaries.
‘This is how billionaires should have fun,’ he said. ‘Compare to other tech-leaders like Bill Gates, Zuck and eye-brow plucked influencers.
‘Do you want to put on a pair of meta-glasses or do you want to go shoot a great big gun?!’
It comes after Musk traveled to the Texan city of Eagle Pass this week to speak with border officials and claim that some ‘pretty extreme people’ were arriving illegally.
This drew criticism from his long-standing political adversary Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who accused him taking a ‘joyride’ to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Musk said he was concerned about stories of violent criminals finding their way into the country among those fleeing poverty and conflict.
He discussed stories of people with gang tattoos on their faces being allowed to claim asylum, and said it was ‘insane’.
‘They have murdered someone and they are so proud of having murdered someone they tattoo one tear on their face for every person they have killed,’ he said.
Musk (center) is seen with the mayor of Eagle Pass, Rolando Salinas, in a white shirt, on Thursday
The Twitter tsar is seen on Thursday in the town of Eagle Pass, Texas, with Congressman Tony Gonzalez
Ocasio-Cortez, 33, who has long been critical of Musk, condemned his visit to the city and singled out his guide, local Republican congressman Tony Gonzalez, for particular scorn.
‘What’s funny about this photo?’ she wrote on X on Thursday.
‘The House is holding important votes in DC tonight, people are scrambling to avoid a shutdown, but this Republican Congressman decided to skip town to joyride with a billionaire when his own party has just a single-digit margin and needs his vote.’
The day before, Musk had mocked the Democrat congresswoman, saying she’s ‘just not that smart’ following her claim that more migrants entered the U.S. through Ellis Island than were arriving illegally across the Rio Grande.
Ocasio-Cortez hit back, replying to Musk: ‘I wasn’t born rich and became the youngest woman in American history to be elected to Congress.’
Her anger at Musk came after he warned, while in Eagle Pass, that New York City’s inability to cope with the migrant crisis was an ominous sign for the rest of the country.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has long been engaged in a war of words with Elon Musk
Throughout the month of August, upwards of 232,000 migrants crossed the US-Mexico border – and up to two million are estimated to have crossed this year
In his livestream from Eagle Pass, Texas, Musk said he wanted to share with his 158 million followers scenes from the overwhelmed border town, and at one point turned his camera on rows of people sitting on the ground awaiting processing under a bridge.
But the stream crashed after only four minutes, in an echo of his disastrous attempt to host Ron DeSantis’s campaign launch on X. That broadcast, too, was marred by repeated collapse of the connection.
The South African-born Musk insisted on Thursday that he was ‘extremely pro-immigrant’, but said he wanted to see the system regulated.
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