Elon Musk is angry at Tim Walz's jabs. Should he be surprised?
Elon Musk is calling Tim Walz a "huge jerk" after the Minnesota governor poked fun at Tesla's drooping stock price amid ongoing vandalism at Tesla dealerships. Though given Musk's recent rhetoric, it might not be surprising others are taking swings at him in similar fashion.
“I mean, you have Tim Walz, who’s a huge jerk, running around on stage where the (Tesla) stock price had gone in half, and he was overjoyed,” Musk told Fox News' Bret Baier. “What an evil thing to do. What a creep, what a jerk.” This comes as Musk regularly berates those he disagrees with on the X, the platform he owns, including using language mocking people with disabilities. Walz has said he was joking after making fun of Tesla's stock price at a town hall in Wisconsin.
This political back-and-forth is nothing new, as those from opposing parties have long sparred in all kinds of media for centuries. What is new, though, is how viral these moments explode online and steer the news cycle. Political watchers say moments like this only stoke the fires of the U.S. partisan divide – and shouldn't shock anyone paying attention.
"Musk has a long history of responding to critics in a sudden and unfiltered manner, often using social media to engage with politicians and ordinary people," says Ian Anson, associate political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "If these kinds of public quarrels continue, I anticipate they will serve to only further polarize public attitudes towards the two figures across party lines."
'No topic is off limits'
The First Amendment in the U.S. "protects our right to criticize people, products and companies," says Lara Schwartz, American University senior lecturer and author of "Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life." It's something most public figures are used to, but "might all come as a surprise to Elon Musk," Schwartz says. "Most people who wield policy making power in government have been through an election where they're open to criticism, where they have to make their case to people, and Elon Musk has not. Nobody elected him. He hasn't run for public office."
And when it comes to "political squabbles, no topic is off limits," says Melvin Williams, associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University, "including past and present scandals and, in this case, Telsa’s perceived business decline. As a commercial vehicle product, Telsa has been deeply politicized since Musk’s entrance into American politics, as some liberals withdrew product support, Republicans conveniently embraced Telsa."
Hence why Walz, a Democrat, knows what will make his supporters applaud.
Musk, Walz spat means 'greater polarization'
Walz's recent comments on Musk might remind people about the governor's comments during the 2024 election when he was facing off against Trump and JD Vance: "These are weird people on the other side," he said in a moment that later went viral.
"He seems to be reverting to that playbook by reveling in the decline of Tesla’s stock," says Brad Fulton, associate professor of management and social policy at Indiana University Bloomington. While the attention-seeking is working again, "it comes at a significant cost," Fulton says. "This tit-for-tat political discourse produces greater polarization and causes the general public to tune-out and disengage from the political process."
Still, that's not reason enough for either to stop riling up their respective bases. "If Walz knows that Democrats are now nearly unanimous in their dislike of Musk, these spats allow him to gain visibility without alienating many core supporters," Anson says.
Does this mean Walz needed to mock Musk? Not necessarily, but this is like the type of discourse we will see more of in the future, says Williams.
"Both men exchanged below-the-belt, uncivil expressions that advanced petty partisan politics rather than diffusing them,: Williams says. "It is not a new phenomenon and will endure during the Trump 2.0 era and beyond."