Martha Kehagias
Thursday was a great night. The youngest of my three kids graduated from elementary school. In celebration, we ate the most tender souvlakia Nicosia has to offer, accompanied by a cool hilltop breeze. And one of my American friends sent me screenshots of Elon Musk's and Donald Trump's Twitter war. Unaware? Let me fill you in.
First, Elon (you'll allow me the familiarity now, considering I'm his newest potential fan) declared himself the saviour of the Republican Party. "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate," followed by "Such ingratitude."
Next, Mr. 'GrabThemByThePussy' said, "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!" By the way, what's with all the extra capital letters? I'm no grammar Nazi, I leave the salutes to Elon anyway, but we're talking about basic capitalization rules here. I shouldn't nitpick. Mr. 'ICouldShootSomebodyAndNotLoseAnyVoters' has come a long way from the days of "covfefe" Tweets. He continued, "Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" Somebody cue Gnarls Barkley.
My first instinct was to ‘heart’ everything and let my inner New Yorker loose. I messaged my friend: “Ooh, they petty. Taking their beef online? I love it. They’re going to tear each other apart. It’s like a snake eating its own tail.”
Still, I had doubts. Was this tête-à-tête even real? I’m not exactly a regular on X since my own account boasts a proud zero followers, and I’d never dared venture into the depths of Truth Social (I bet you’ve never even seen it, have you?). But curiosity won. So now I’ve got another account with zero followers. Thanks, Truth Social.
I had to know: were the screenshots making me grin like an idiot legit? They were. So, back to the backbiting. My newest neurodivergent crush decided it was, “Time to drop the really big bomb”:
“@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
I mean… mwah. Chef’s kiss. That reply was performance art.
All-in-all, it was a pretty good night. When (if) my grandkids ask, I'll be able to say that I remember when the man who took us to Mars and the only felon to ever become president of the United States had their very public spat and laid it out for the world to see. I'll be able to say, "I was there." I'll speak those words, not purely out of a guilty sense of satisfaction at watching powerful people unravel, but with the knowledge that, despite my hugely uninformed past and knowledge of politics, I was finally aware of what was going on.
And to answer my own question, "Am I becoming a fan of Elon Musk?" Well, not yet, but I've certainly developed a new admiration for this very public persona who is finally calling Trump out.
