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Elon Musk’s creepy Taylor Swift tweet just made things worse for Trump

Vaseline September 11, 2024

For Trump, the combination of a bad debate and an endorsement of Swift was the political equivalent of losing a boxing match, leaving the arena and having a piano dropped on your head.

In politics, it’s always good to focus entirely on a grossly unfair claim that dehumanizes a large portion of the population, while one of your best surrogates ridicules a hugely beloved pop star with a creepy comment that sounds like a sexist divorced father hitting on a younger woman.

Is that right? Okay, maybe that’s not right. That sounds like bad political maneuvering.

But that’s exactly what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign has been doing since he staggered off the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night after being soundly defeated by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Republicans are repeating Trump’s grotesque lie that immigrants eat people’s pets as they watch billionaire Trump superfan Elon Musk make a clumsy attempt to get Taylor Swift’s attention

Harris’ widely praised performance was followed by an endorsement from Swift, one of America’s most influential figures: “I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes that I believe need a warrior to defend.” She signed it off, “Childless Cat Lady,” a gentle middle finger to Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance’s previous misogynistic rants.

Things were going bad for Trump, then Musk came along and made it worse

For Trump, the combination of a bad debate and supporting Swift was the political equivalent of losing a game, leaving the arena, and having a piano dropped on your head.

So Trump billionaire Elon Musk seized his chance to save the day by posting on the massive social media platform he owns: “Fine Taylor… you win… I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”

Ewww. Let me speak for many Americans when I say, “Dude, what the hell? That’s creepy AF.”

Musk is 53 and Swift is 34. I’m sure his weird lizard and his brain thought it was a funny joke, but it absolutely was not.

Is Swift’s support important? Taylor Swift is endorsing Kamala Harris. That’s a big deal, even if you don’t think so.

Swift’s show of support was calm and friendly, unlike everything Trump does

Swift posted a thoughtful recommendation that showed respect for those who disagreed with him and encouraged people to educate themselves on the candidates and make their own decisions. Musk responded with the equivalent of, “HAH HAH I’LL PUT A BABY INSIDE YOU IF YOU WANT STUPID CAT LADY!!”

Musk’s crass message is emblematic of the toilet bowl around which Trump’s campaign is currently spinning. (Correction: The campaign has already spun the toilet bowl, gone down the drain, and is now in the sludge pit outside the sewage treatment plant.)

Lies About Eaten Pets Show Trump’s Campaign Is Extraordinarily Weird

In the days leading up to the debate, Trump and company had been spreading a grotesque and deeply xenophobic lie that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets. It was based on nothing more than racist right-wing fever dreams. Officials in the Ohio city at the center of some of these lies made that abundantly clear.

But Vance, Musk, and Trump himself posted defamatory memes with the sole purpose of portraying an innocent immigrant community as inferior and to scare white people into believing something foolish.

Is this what Republicans want? Trump goes nuts in Harris debate. Republicans, are you sure you want this guy?

And then, during the debate, when we knew full well that Trump’s handlers just wanted him to behave somewhat normally, Trump came up with this nonsense about eating pets.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he bellowed, like an elderly relative who you wish would stop coming to family dinners.

Trump and Vance need to stop trying to make ‘eating pets’ possible

It seemed hard to believe. A candidate at a presidential debate was ranting and raving about something that was completely made up and, worse, dehumanizing nonsense that would appear on page 1 of “How to Be a Racist.”

But there was Trump. And after the debate, in the media spin room, there was his running mate doubling down on the offensive bull, telling CNN, “First of all, city officials didn’t say it’s not true. They said they don’t have all the evidence. No evidence.”

Sure, Jan. No proof. A clear sign that something you made up definitely happened.

None of this is a sign that the campaign is performing well, quite the opposite.

If you insist that dogs and cats are eaten by people you are opportunistically trying to belittle, you lose. Period. No one believes this nonsense. All it does is force hard-working American writers like me to waste time looking up synonyms for “weird” and “horrible.” (I found a few! How about “weird” and “horrible”?)

I can’t imagine how the Trump campaign is going to follow up the “SHE EATS OUR DOGS!” story and Musk going all out on one of the most popular women in the world.

But hey, it’s still a young week. And they’ve got Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on their team. I’m sure they’ll find a way down.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk