(Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Monday it was time for Donald Trump to “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset,” days after the former U.S. President mocked the billionaire at a political rally and called him a “Bull***t artist.”
Writing on Twitter, Musk said, “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
“Dems should also call off the attack – don’t make it so that Trump’s only way to survive is to regain the Presidency,” he added without explanation.
Musk’s remarks were in response to comments Trump made at a rally in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday, where he was speaking in support of U.S. House of Representatives candidate Sarah Palin and U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka.
The former president said at the rally that Musk was not going to buy Twitter Inc and that the Tesla Inc chief executive had got himself a mess.
“(Musk) said the other day, I’ve never voted for a Republican. I said I didn’t know that; he told me he voted for me. He’s another bull***t artist, but he is not going to be buying it (Twitter),” Trump said.
Last month, Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum that he had not decided whom he would support in the next presidential election, a week after saying on Twitter that he was leaning towards supporting Florida governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024.
On Monday, Musk added that if DeSantis ran against Biden in 2024, “then DeSantis will easily win” and that “Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America.”
(Reporting by Shivam Patel and Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru; Editing by Bradley Perrett)