--- title: "Elon Musk Fuming After Frenemy Donald Trump Found Guilty on All Counts" description: "After taking pains to distance himself from Donald Trump, Elon Musk is now raging on the GOP frontrunner's behalf over his guilty verdict." date: "2024-05-31" modified: "2024-05-31" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-furious-trump-guilty" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "politics" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Fuming After Frenemy Donald Trump Found Guilty on All Counts ![After taking pains to distance himself from Donald Trump, Elon Musk is now raging on the GOP frontrunner's behalf over his guilty verdict.]() *\Image: Apu Gomes / David Dee Delgado via Getty / Futurism\* ## Not My President After taking pains to [distance himself]() from Donald Trump's potential presidency, Elon Musk is now raging on the GOP frontrunner's behalf over his [guilty verdict](). In a [post on his social network]() X-formerly-Twitter, Musk suggested that the outcome of the highly publicized case against Trump — on which he was [found guilty on all 34 counts]() — is a slippery slope, essentially implying that it's fine to falsify business records related to hush money paid out to an adult film star. "If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter — motivated by politics, rather than justice — then anyone is at risk of a similar fate," the multi-hyphenate tycoon [tweeted](). Posting in agreement with someone else's hot take — it's certainly not the first time — Musk co-signed an [argument from an economics analyst account](), which decried Trump being the first ex-president to ever be found guilty of a felony when so many others had overseen and directed war crimes. "The first felony conviction of a former US President wasn’t for the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, illegal CIA coups, drone striking weddings, or spying on Americans," the Musk-approved account wrote. "It was because Trump misclassified a $130,000 payment for a porn star’s \[non-disclosure agreement\]." ## Mixed Signals Salient as [parts of that point may be](), it's currently the [rallying cry of certain partisan hacks]() that seek to dismiss the severity of [Trump's crimes]() and [lies](). It's the kind of rhetoric that Musk had sought to denounce as recently as yesterday, when in another X post he [agreed with libertarian senator Rand Paul]() about both parties being responsible for the national debt. In another of the [mercurial billionaire's tweets]() this week, he also denied the [*Wall Street Journal*'s reporting]() that he'd been in talks with Trump to reprieve his short-lived 2017 role as a White House advisor. "There have not been any discussions of a role for me in a potential Trump Presidency," [Musk wrote]() in response to a video that had clearly caught his attention. While there's no reason to think he's lying or obfuscating on that point, Musk jumping to Trump's defense does send somewhat mixed signals about where he stands with the former and potential future president — though it's crystal clear, at least, that he's not pleased with the way things are being run in his adoptive country. "Indeed," the nearly 53-year-old demagogue [wrote in his quote-tweet](), "great damage was done today to the public’s faith in the American legal system." **More on Musk:** [*Elon Musk Blind With Rage After Analysts Recommend Rejecting His $56 Billion Pay Package*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()