Elon Musk said he would support Ron DeSantis in 2024 if the Florida governor were to run for president as the Chief Twit teased the possible launch of a new ‘ePhone.’
Responding to a Twitter thread on Friday asking if he would support DeSantis, the world’s richest man simply replied, ‘Yes.’
Musk said that while he was a supporter of the Obama-Biden administration, he admitted that he only ‘reluctantly voted for Biden over Trump,’ in 2020.
‘My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist,’ Musk added. ‘I had hoped that would [be] the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far.’
The endorsement from Musk comes a day after top Florida Republicans looked poised to change a law that would allow DeSantis to remain governor even if the GOP star launches a presidential bid.
While backing DeSantis on Friday, Musk also said he would launch a new smartphone if a woke mob convinces Apple and Google to drop Twitter from their app stores.
On Friday evening, conservative commentator Liz Wheeler tweeted: ‘If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android.
‘The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?’
Musk replied: ‘I certainly hope it does not come to that,’ Musk replied, ‘but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone.’
The questions was poised following a New York Times op-ed piece from Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter who made a surprising resignation earlier this month.
In the piece, Roth warned that Musk’s goal to create an absolute, free speech platform could ultimately be hindered by Apple and Google, who might kick Twitter off their app stores over safety concerns.
‘Failure to adhere to Apple’s and Google’s guidelines would be catastrophic, risking Twitter’s expulsion from their app stores and making it more difficult for billions of potential users to get Twitter’s services,’ Roth wrote.
‘This gives Apple and Google enormous power to shape the decisions Twitter makes.’
Speculations over Twitter’s future on the platforms rose after Phil Schiller, an Apple fellow who leads its app store, recently deleted his account.
Getting booted from the two top mobile app stores would serve as the latest headache for the Chief Twit, who is preparing to relaunch the platform’s muddied verification system.
Twitter will roll out a new approach to account verification next Friday, using blue, gold and gray check marks to indicate different types of users.
‘Gold check for companies, gray check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not),’ said the company’s owner Elon Musk.
It will be his latest attempt to resolve the issue of verification after a failed initial revamp led to a large surge of fake verified accounts that stirred trouble in Wall Street.
Under the new system all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, said Musk, who has reduced the company’s headcount from 7,500 employees to 2,750.
‘Individuals can have a secondary tiny logo to show they belong to an organization if verified as such by that organization,’ Musk said in another tweet, adding that he will give a longer explanation next week.
The blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. There are about 400,000 verified users on Twitter.
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