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Elon Musk has a bad habit of being a dickhead idiot on the internet, and for the most part that has worked out fine for the richest person in the world. Now, though, his online shittiness may have caught up with him.
On September 15, just after a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was carried out, an X user called DogeDesigner (of course) wrote, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk decided to respond, saying, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” with a few question marks at the end. The post was deleted later on and he said it was meant as a joke, but you know who didn’t think it was funny – other than everyone? The U.S. Secret Service, according to a new report from Bloomberg. You see, they investigate whenever there’s a possible threat against one of their protectees. Threatening the U.S. president or VP is a felony that can either result in a big fine or up to five years in prison. They’re serious people.
Now, the Secret Service has turned its attention to the Tesla CEO, as Bloomberg reports in their FOIA Files series:
FOIA Files sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the Secret Service’s Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division, Office of Protective Operations and Office of Investigations for documents and emails referencing Musk’s post.
On Wednesday, the agency responded to the requests by saying records it has about Musk’s post were “compiled for law enforcement purposes” and are being withheld because “disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
We followed up with the Secret Service’s FOIA division and were told that the Protective Intelligence Division advised that it cannot release any records because of “enforcement proceedings.”
I don’t want to bust any Musk hater’s bubble, but this probably won’t amount to much for the guy, as Bloomberg explains:
The worst that will likely happen if the Secret Service pays a visit to Musk is he’ll be inconvenienced and he’ll have to prove he doesn’t pose an imminent threat to President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris.
He may never even hear from the Secret Service, which was the case when former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider called for Biden and his son, Hunter, to be hanged in a post on X last year. (The Secret Service determined Schneider’s post was only a “veiled threat” and declined to take any action.)
Or, he may never have the opportunity to “rap along with” Secret Service agents, as was the case with Marshall Mathers, AKA the rapper Eminem, after he was summoned in 2018 to answer questions about some of his song lyrics.
Someone clearly got the message to Musk that it was not an appropriate thing to put on social media. After deleting the post he wrote, “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.” He later said, “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.” Amigo, this is just embarrassing. None of this happened. You don’t have friends.