DeSantis Sticks Up for Elon Musk After Disney Leaves Twitter

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is defending one of the few people in the world more controversial than himself: Elon Musk.

Elon Musk recently made even more headlines than usual when the Twitter owner made a social media post supporting a statement widely viewed as anti-Semitic. Although Musk is notorious for his inflammatory Twitter posts, this appeared to have finally been a bridge too far for many people.

Elon Musk and Media Matters

The post was followed by an article by watchdog group Media Matters, which alleged that the “social media platform has been placing ads for major brands like Apple, Bravo (NBCUniversal), IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity (Comcast) next to content that touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.”

Related: The Fall of X: Elon Musk is the Reason These Companies Left Twitter

The fallout has been swift and intense. Although they did not explicitly state this was because of Media Matters, major companies like Disney, Apple, Comcast, Paramount Global, IBM, and Warner Bros Discovery have all suspended ad buys on Twitter, a huge blow to the financially struggling company. The public image of Twitter has suffered since Elon Musk purchased it in 2022 (following a series of legal struggles with shareholders), and this new report certainly isn’t helping anything.

Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, claiming “Media Matters has manipulated the algorithms governing user experience on X to bypass safeguards and create images of X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content, leaving the false impression that these pairings are anything but what they actually are: manufactured, inorganic, and extraordinarily rare.”

DeSantis and Elon Musk

Governor DeSantis appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, where he was asked by anchor Jake Tapper if he would condemn Elon Musk’s post. Tapper said it “openly endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews are conspiring to replace white Americans with minority immigrants,” and that the Walt Disney Company (among others) had pulled away from Twitter in its wake (per NBC).

DeSantis declined to condemn Elon Musk, saying, “I did not see the comment…I know that Elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased Twitter because I think he’s taking it in the direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don’t like.”

Related: Experts Criticize Elon Musk, Back Disney Imagineering

The far-right governor and presidential candidate continued, “I was a big supporter of him purchasing Twitter…I think they’re obviously still working some stuff out, but I did not see those comments.”

It is likely that Jake Tapper asked Gov DeSantis about Elon Musk and Twitter because of the former’s ongoing feud with Disney, one of the most prominent companies to disassociate itself from the social media platform in the continuing aftermath of the alleged anti-Semitism controversy.

DeSantis himself is locked into a number of lawsuits with Disney over, among other things, the special tax district around Walt Disney World and accusations of political retaliation against the House of Mouse.

Do you think DeSantis has an obligation to condemn or defend Elon Musk? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

This post is originally appeared on Inside the Magic.