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It’s week 10 and we’re down to just six chefs on Top Chef Houston. Which is a shame — I feel like things are just (finally?) heating up. I’m hoping that by the time the finale rolls around, that Jurassic Park episode will seem like a distant memory. Maybe that was by design, and that’s why they stuck it in the middle like that. Maybe these producers are smarter than I’ve been giving them credit for.

Hey, I get it, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to for the money. Just ask my editor’s mom.

Aaaanyway, this week’s episode took the contestants first to Houston’s historic Farmer’s Market for a fajita challenge, to be judged by Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins and her fancy eyeglass frames. She explained that the word “fajita” comes from the word for skirt, or girdle (just like my editor’s mom wears to hold her gut in), which originally referred to the skirt steaks that people grilled in the market stalls.

Each contestant would scour the market and create their own little girdles for Padma and Claudette to eat, with the winner receiving $10,000 courtesy of Chipotle. Mmm, that’s a lotta girdles. In exchange for the sponsorship, Chipotle received one or two fairly low-key mentions and a plug for their humanely sourced meats or whatever. Which was… nice, actually. The product was relevant to the challenge and no one had to dress up in a guacamole costume or whatever.

See? Product placement can work.

At the mention of the 10 grand, the chefs all wondered aloud if “The Mississippi Baker,” Chef Nick, would win yet another cash prize. He’s called “The Mississippi Baker,” we learned, because he always “gets his bread,” having won the two previous cash Quickfires, in episodes five and six. Hey, fuckers, knock it off, I’m the one giving the nicknames around here.

After that, it was time for a SPACE CHALLENGE. That’s right, Houston, you might remember, is the city astronauts are talking to when they say things like, “Houston, we have a problem.”

Kudos to the Top Chef producers, judges, and contestants, by the way, for making it all the way through a space-based Top Chef episode set in Houston without ever going for a “Houston, we have a problem” pun. Amazing job. Clearly, I lack that kind of restraint. The challenge was introduced by guest judge Marcus Samuelsson, who arrived dressed like this:

Let’s see… brimmed hat, stars on the jacket, some sort of bovine camouflage pattern on the pants… Oh, “Space Cowboy!” I get it.

Samuelsson was there to introduce the space-food challenge, after which the contestants all headed off to NASA to meet some astronauts and chit-chat about zero Gs and Tang and whatnot. Melissa King was there, to challenge Marcus Samuelsson to a “who looks better in a patterned blazer and Aloha shirt” contest.

I have to give Melissa King the edge here, not that I wouldn’t absolutely brain a guy at Dan Flashes for Samuelsson’s fish shirt, because I would. Is there a lady version of “Big Dick Energy?” Melissa King has it.

Anyway, the judges tasked the contestants with preparing some food fit for space, to be judged by two astronauts, whose names I don’t feel like looking up but suffice to say neither of whom were the famous astronaut diaper lady. The winning dish would “become the basis for a dish that would be served on the space station,” and the only stipulations were that the dishes should be free of crumbs and liquid. Turns out, the delicate space equipment hates crumbs and liquid.

Honestly, “no crumbs or liquid” seemed a little wishy-washy, as guidelines go. How crumb and liquid free are we talking here? Nothing but nougat?

In practice, “liquid” ended up being something of a relative term, with most of the chefs adding a roux or parsnips or okra or whatever to make their stews and braises extra thicc. And thus, presumably, not legally considered a “liquid.” I wonder if that would fly at the airport. I love to imagine myself pleading with the TSA agent, “What’s the problem officer? As you can see, I clearly thickened this Gatorade with a nice oxtail roux.” If they really wanted to control for liquidity, they should’ve had the diaper lady judge. Each chefs gets extra points for however long she’s able to drive afterward without peeing. Call me, producers, I have many ideas.

For the most part, the results shook out exactly how you might expect, had you been reading these columns. That is, with one notable exception.

RESULTS

Quickfire Top: Nick, Buddha, Evelyn.
Quickfire Bottom: Damarr, Ashleigh, Jae.

Elimination Challenge Top: Nick, Buddha*, Evelyn.
Elimination Challenge Bottom: Damarr, Ashleigh, Jae**.

*Winner.
**Eliminated.

6. (-1) ((Eliminated)) Jae Jung

AKA: Noodles. Jae West. Hilaria. Dr. Hibbert.

Elimination Challenge Dish: Bulgogi with gochujang barley.

Critiques: “I wasn’t sure what the texture was supposed to be.” “The barley was undercooked.” “Beef was very mushy.” “The carrots were the best part.”

Ah, Jae. What will we do without her? (And that is a sadly definitive “without her” this time, my screener came late this week so I actually got to watch Last Chance Kitchen before submitting this piece this week, and SPOILER ALERT, Jae didn’t win).

Jae was… kinda weird. Weird-cool? Sure. We shall miss her constant laughter and huskily voiced paeans to cheese. She was always weirdly horny for cheese.

It seemed like Jae was back on the right track after last week’s win, but as always, she seemed much more thrown by the challenge guidelines than anyone else. She made bulgogi as her take on comfort food, but thickened it with parsnips to keep it from being too liquidy, and paired it with barley for some reason, and she ended up with mushy meat over undercooked barley, the same texture as my editor’s mother’s… fine, fine, too much of this joke, I get it.

5. (+1) Ashleigh Shanti

AKA: Moonjuice. Sugar Hillcountry.

Elimination Challenge: Marinated tuna and shrimp with sweet potato slaw

Critiques: “I think there was too much of a focus on presentation, and it lacked a bit on flavor.” “It was a big piece of tuna and it was very bland.”

It was the same three chefs on top and on bottom for both challenges this week, which makes these rankings even easier than usual. If Jae’s kryptonite is not quite understanding challenge rules, Ashleigh’s is overthinking them.

Ashleigh this week took the space food challenge maybe a little too literally, serving the chefs poached tuna in a can with a bag of herbs served with a scissor. It felt like rather than cooking a dish that reminded astronauts of Earth, she was trying to make the Earth judges feel like they were in space. Look, Ashleigh, if I want to feel like I’m in space I’ll pee my pants.

The bigger problem (a weirdly pervasive one for Ashleigh) was cutting her meat too thick, as well as poaching it (not long enough) in a liquid that was insufficiently fatty (coconut water). Uncharacteristically for Ashleigh, this dish kinda looked and sounded bad to boot. Luckily for her Jae decided to make baby food beef with a side of barley starch so Ashleigh gets to stick around for another week.

4. (-1) Evelyn Garcia

AKA: Cuddles.

Elimination Challenge Dish: Guiso Rojo

Critiques: “Had so much depth of flavor.” “Really well-rounded.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Hispanic native Houstonian did well in the fajita challenge. But then she kept it going in the elimination challenge. Like I said last week, Evelyn and Nick are so neck and neck that it’s hard to rank them. But Nick won the quickfire this week, so I guess I have to give him the slight edge. If this elimination challenge had been a menu, I would’ve been torn between Evelyn’s guiso rojo and Nick’s gumbo.

Whereas Nick’s point of view seemed pretty much fully-formed from the beginning, it feels like Evelyn is only just now learning to lean into Mexican food with Southeast Asian influences (she marinated her fajita meat in fish sauce, something something my editor’s mom). It seems to be working for her. I don’t know if that gives her the advantage because she’s peaking at the right time or puts her behind Nick by having to make up for lost time. My expert opinion is that her food looks very good and I would eat it.

3. (+1) Nick Wallace

AKA: Domingo. Chocolate Mormon. The Count. The Mississippi Baker (I can’t deny a good nickname, even if I didn’t coin it).

Elimination Challenge Dish: Mississippi Gumbo

Critiques: “Really delicious.” “Mississippi God damn!”

The Chocolate Mormon was the only chef who made fresh tortillas for the fajita challenge, a move that won him both $10,000 and my heart. For the elimination challenge, he made a “Mississippi Gumbo,” with black-eyed peas, chicken, okra, butter beans, and rice, something he said he lifted from his own menu at the Civil Rights Museum. Seems a little weird that we’re only just finding out that Nick is the chef at the Civil Rights Museum, kinda like having to find out that Sarah grew up in Jamaica from Last Chance Kitchen.

Spoiler alert, Sarah won Last Chance Kitchen, so she’ll be returning to the competition. Hopefully, she has learned to stop talking with her eyes closed.

I digress. Whatever happens, Nick has already earned himself thirty grand and created buzz for Nick’s 26, so it feels like he’s already a winner. Nick doesn’t need a win, he needs an agent.

2. (-1) Damarr Brown

AKA: Catchphrase. James Beard. Screech.

Elimination Challenge Dish: Rice with chicken gravy and hot pickled peppers.

Critiques: “The rice is very overcooked.” “Wasn’t a lot of flavor.” “I guess I was looking for something a little more.” “Underwhelming.”

Obviously the big story this week was Damarr falling off after he’s been running neck and neck with Buddha the same way Evelyn and Nick are. The judges always claim to be judging based solely on the challenge at hand, but it felt like Damarr would’ve been the one to go home, for his overcooked rice with bland gravy, if he hadn’t built up so much goodwill up until this point. Which is good, Damarr going home would’ve sucked.

Maybe I’m just overvaluing Damarr because he seems like one of the most genuine human beings ever to appear on a reality show, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt here and predict that he’s still a favorite.

1. (+1) Buddha Lo

AKA: Buddha. Mr. International. Big Pun. Asian Ben Mendelsohn. The Salad Nazi. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator.

Elimination Challenge Dish: “Pavlova 14.”

Critiques: “It was interactive and fun and playful.” “He told a great story. And it was fun.”

Last week I made the point that Buddha seems to be at his best when he does the opposite of comfort food. You probably couldn’t invent a challenge more tailor-made for Buddha’s particular set of skills than “cook food fit for space” and not surprisingly he rose to the occasion. With a dessert made of pavlova and white chocolate meant to evoke Alan Shepard’s golf ball on the moon during Apollo 14, which Buddha named “Pavlova 14.”

Remember when I nicknamed Buddha “Big Pun” in Week One? Remember?? VALIDATE MEEEE.

Buddha even dropped a “that’s a lotta masa” after the $10,000 prize was announced in the quickfire, and it’s exactly that kind of cleverness that tends to leaven Buddha’s otherwise Michael Jordan-esque level of single-minded, borderline psychotic competitiveness. Watching him put avocados in a food processor during the quickfire challenge hurt my soul a little bit, but for the most part, I can’t help but love a cuddly Australian with a lisp named “Buddha” who is actually a food assassin.

For as comparatively lacking in compelling personalities as this season has occasionally been, the finale shaping up as a battle between soulful comfort food savant Damarr and brilliant flawless space food scientist Buddha is pretty hard to beat, as narratives go. It’s like a classic striker vs. grappler matchup in MMA.

Will Buddha choke out Damarr with a rear-naked foam?? Or will Damarr knock Buddha into next week with a thundering right ham hock?? Time will tell. All I know is that I’m going to be watching the shit out of it, possibly with JUST BRAISE painted on my chest while I flex so hard I fart a little.

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Read the rest of our Top Chef Power Rankings here. Vince Mancini is on Twitter.

The day after the Met Gala, rumors broke out that Elon Musk asked Sky Ferreira out. This originated on a parody account of Pop Crave called @pop_crawe, which made a viral tweet that read, “It girl, model, singer, songwriter, Sky Ferreira declines date with Elon Musk after being asked by his team at the 2022’s Met Gala.” It quickly got picked up by some publications as a legitimate story.

Musk took to Twitter today to debunk this gossip, writing, “I didn’t ask anyone out or request particular seating,” and adding, “This rumor originated from a parody account, but got picked up by real media & twitter trends (sigh).” There you have it.

People likely were quick to believe this rumor probably because of Musk’s notorious relationship with alt-pop star Grimes, whose music is very much in the same realm as Ferreira’s. Grimes was considered an indie star for a while, so upon forming a relationship with a billionaire people couldn’t help speculating about the way she makes and releases music. On TikTok, she responded to a fan who asked why she was on a label: ““Need to get out of the gate-keeping of indie music and I need $ for music videos etc haha contrary to popular belief my bf doesn’t fund my career,” the “Oblivion” singer wrote.

Actress/singer/cooking show host/former Barney cast member Selena Gomez has been tapped to host Saturday Night Live next week, May 14th, with musical guest Post Malone.

Gomez has performed on the show before, but this will be her first time hosting. The actress has been busy over the last year, launching a new mental health site and filming the second season of the surprisingly good Hulu series Only Murders In The Building alongside former SNL castmember Steve Martin and Martin Short. Perhaps Martin will show up for a cameo?

The second season of Only Murders will air this summer, featuring new cast members Cara Delevingne, Michael Rapaport, and Amy Schumer. The show follows a group of armchair detectives whose love of true crime podcasts lead them to solve various mysteries around their swanky New York City apartment building.

Post Malone is also slated to make his SNL debut ahead of his upcoming album, Twelve Carat Toothache, which drops June 3rd. He is gearing up to play a handful of festivals later this summer. The rapper also announced he is expecting his first child earlier this week.

It’s unclear if SNL favorite, and Post Malone’s pal, Pete Davidson will be back for this episode, as he is famously absent from a lot of the show. He’s been busy!

It’s been quite a week for Dave Chappelle, who was attacked onstage at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, and although Jamie Foxx did a spot-on impression of the comedian describing the incident, Dave has also given his more accurate take. Granted, this wasn’t a totally serious take because Chappelle kept the jokes flowing in a secret comedy show, where he called his attacker “a homeless guy with leaves in his hair.”

Still, Chappelle did appear to step back a bit, according to The Hollywood Reporter, when he described how he persuaded the venue’s security team to let him speak with Isaiah Lee, who suffered arm injuries in a post-stage invasion scuffle. Chappelle asked Lee to explain his actions, and here’s how he described the discussion:

“I needed to talk to him,” Chappelle said. He asked Lee what possibly could have prompted his attack, to which Lee — who Chappelle said appeared to him to be mentally ill — offered a story about his grandmother from Brooklyn, who had been forced out of her neighborhood by gentrification. The attack was meant to draw attention to her plight, Chappelle recounted.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office declined to press felony charges against Lee. Deadline reports that, instead, Lee has been charged (by the LA City Attorney’s Office) with four misdemeanors involving weapons possession, unauthorized stage access, and battery. You can watch that video announcement from LA City Attorney Mike Feuer below.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter & Deadline)

If Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson are pushing the same conspiracy theory, there’s a 99.9 percent chance that it’s nonsense. Well, one of their favorites about the attempted coup on January 6 has been 100 percent debunked.

The theory involves Ray Epps, who the Cruzs and Carlsons (and Trumps and Taylor Greenes) of the world believe was a federal informant who helped instigate the riot. “The claims, made in congressional hearing rooms, on Fox News, and at Mr. Trump’s political rallies, have largely been based on a video taken just before violence erupted at the Capitol, showing Mr. Epps at the barricades outside the building whispering into the ear of a man named Ryan Samsel,” the New York Times reports. But two days after January 6, Epps phoned an FBI tip-line and told them what actually happened:

[Epps] called an F.B.I. tip line and told investigators that he had tried to calm Mr. Samsel down when they spoke, according to three people who have heard a recording of the call. Mr. Epps went on to say that he explained to Mr. Samsel that the police outside the building were merely doing their jobs… Then in late January of last year, in an interview with the F.B.I., Mr. Samsel said much the same thing, telling investigators that a man he did not know came up to him at the barricades and suggested he relax, according to a recording of the interview obtained by the New York Times.

Samsel testified that all Epps said was “dude” and “relax, the cops are just doing their job.” As the Washington Post notes, “It’s important to stress that Republicans and right-wing media have constructed a whole superstructure of other wild allegations on top of this Epps tale,” including that the House committee investigating January 6th is “covering up important evidence” about Epps. But nope, it appears that he’s just a MAGA-loving wedding venue owner from Arizona, not a criminal mastermind.

Carlson can move on to another obsessions, like testicle tanning.

(Via New York Times and Washington Post)

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There has been a wave of musicians speaking up about the recent leaked document that suggests the overturning of Roe v. Wade: Phoebe Bridgers, Halsey, Questlove, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, and more. Rock legends Rage Against The Machine are the latest to step in to share their support for a woman’s rights to choose.

“Rage Against The Machine stands in support of reproductive justice and will continue to fight against any attempts to restrict or control reproductive freedoms,” the band’s statement reads. “Criminalizing access to abortion will only add to the suffering disproportionately felt by poor, BIPOC and undocumented communities. The constant rightward shift of both major parties should alarm us all — a wake up call that we desperately need to organize radical people power against a warfare state that continues its assault on people’s lives.”

The “Killing In The Name” performers have never hesitated to dive into politics, despite many clueless fans asking them to “stick to music.” Frontman Tom Morello has to deal with all sorts of constant bullsh*t; last year, he had to clarify on Twitter that he wasn’t white when someone accused him of white privilege for being friends with Ted Nugent who defended the Capitol insurrection.

Things got heated during Friday morning’s episode of The View as Sunny Hostin shared her true opinion on Black Republicans during an exchange with conservative guest host Lindsey Grainger. Oddly enough, the conservation started while discussing the announcement that Karine Jean-Pierre will be taking over for Jen Psaki as the White House press secretary. When she assumes the role, Jean-Pierre will be the first openly LGBTQ and Black press secretary, which prompted Hostin to ask if Grainger, who is also Black, is a Republican. When Grainger said yes, that’s when the panel went sideways.

“I feel like that’s an oxymoron, a Black Republican,” Hostin said prompting a tense back and forth with Grainger that ultimately ensnared co-host Ana Navarro, who is a Latina Republican.

Via Mediaite:

“I don’t understand either of you,” said Hostin.

“You don’t understand yourself, though,” shot back Granger.

“I understand myself,” replied Hostin. “I don’t understand either of you.”

“I don’t understand Latino Republicans,” she added.

Eventually, Navarro got the panel back on track by saying the focus should be about “celebrating Karine Jean-Pierre.” However, this wasn’t the first time Navarro and Hostin have sparred over this exact topic. In early April, Hostin went on the offensive and pressed Navarro on why she’s still a Republican, which led to a similarly heated exchange like the one with Grainger.

“The party that you loved doesn’t exist anymore,” Hostin asked Navarro via Decider. “It’s the party of insurrectionists, it’s the party of traitors, white supremacists, it’s not the party that you loved. It’s just not.” Instead of answering the question, Navarro shot back, “What you don’t understand is that no matter how much you want it to happen, the Republican party is not going to disappear.” The two eventually moved on thanks to the help of guest host Chelsea Clinton.

(Via Mediaite)

Jack Harlow isn’t afraid to speak up on behalf of his friends. In an interview with The Guardian, the “First Class” rapper defended his “Industry Baby” collaborator Lil Nas X from the homophobic backlash against him.

He said, “The totally inappropriate reaction to him lets you know that we still have some progress to be made. And you hear it in passing; there’s still some homophobia going on. But he’s taking the hit that artists won’t have to take in the future. That’s what makes him a hero.”

For what it’s worth, those detractors couldn’t hold the pair back. “Industry Baby” quickly rose to No. 1 on the Hot 100, marking Lil Nas’ third single to reach that height and Jack’s first. It also helped launch Jack to superstardom along with the No. 2 showing of his breakout single “What’s Poppin.” Jack’s most recent single, “First Class,” was able to go No. 1 ahead of the release of his second studio album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, out now via Atlantic Recordings.

Jack had previously addressed some of the criticism of the “Industry Baby” video, tweeting that he “followed [Nas’] lead every step of the way.” He also insisted that “if he had asked me to be in that shower scene I woulda been in that shower scene. I just let the mastermind cook.”

Obviously, spoilers for Ozark are contained within.

Netflix’s Ozark has come to a savage and shattering conclusion, and somehow, Marty Byrde (presumably) made it out alive with his family intact as well. Granted, we don’t really know what happened after the screen went black, but the suggestion was that Jonah killed Mel the Private Investigator as he clutched the goat-shaped cookie jar full of Ben’s ashes. (What a sentence.) Yep, unless Jonah went rogue again (doesn’t seem likely), the general consensus is that Marty, Wendy, Charlotte, and Jonah made it back to Chicago without being in coffins. And they even survived that rollover vehicle crash, which make zero sense, but alright. Let’s get onto the real point here, though.

What about Ruth Langmore? She lost the game, all because Javi’s mother, Camila, took revenge on everyone’s favorite spitfire over Javi’s death, which was (in and of itself) also an act of vengeance. So circular! And Marty ended up living in Ruth’s world, but since Wendy saved his ass, and someone major needed to be sacrificed before this show ended, Julia Garner threw herself on that grenade. And I’m not too mad about it, even though part of me wanted Ruth to surface in some Ozark movie one day, similar to Jesse Pinkman in El Camino within the Breaking Bad universe. We won’t get a Zombie Ruth, either, so let’s make the best of things while celebrating the season’s best scene.

I’m not talking about Ruth’s death scene, although that was a fitting end for her, given that she died as she lived: ferocious and stubborn as hell and shouting, “Well, are you gonna f*cking do this sh*t or what?” At this point, I’m convinced that she kind-of wanted to die, given that she’d lost Ben and Wyatt, and she was actually haunted (in a pleasant way) by Wyatt, to the point where it probably made her sad to be alive and beginning to live out their rich-people dreams without him. She’d cleaned up her record and could have built up her legit business, and so on. But that wasn’t in the cards for Ruth, and there’s a major hint that this would be the case in Season 4, Part 2’s premiere episode.

The scene in question is a poetic one in which Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike surfaces (as himself). It’s an understated yet powerful scene, and I love it so very much.

We got to see Ruth step out of Missouri when she headed to Chicago after confronting the Byrdes and learning who killed Wyatt. While she mulled over whether she could kill Javi, Ruth (who has been mainlining Nas’ “N.Y. State Of Mind” while driving and so on) stumbled upon one of her heroes at a diner. And of course, one would expect Ruth to acknowledge this with an “I really love your sh*t.” They then entered into a telling discussion about what Ruth’s listening to at that very moment. She’s thinking about Wyatt and life, and she mentions how Nas’ song is bittersweet and rife with equal parts of nostalgia and hatred.

Killer Mike considered this, admitting, “You know, when I listen to that record, his projects are in Queens, and you can kinda see Manhattan, and I’ve always thought it was so hopeful and f*cking cruel at the same time.” To which Ruth asked, “You ever wonder if he’d trade that record if it meant not having to go through all that sh*t?” And Killer Mike shruggingly responds, “I mean, you gotta ask the question…” From there, Ruth admits that she doesn’t sleep while explaining this omission with a “you know.” She receives an understanding nod from Killer Mike, and Ms. Langmore goes her way.

Although Ruth goes gangster during Ozark‘s final episodes, it’s fair to say that this scene gives us a look inside of her honest-to-god emotions, much more than she’s let anyone ever view before now (other than fury and contempt). It feels right that this episode is titled, “The Cousin Of Death,” which comes from a particular turn in Nas’ lyrics:

It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep, ’cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
I think of crime when I’m in a New York state of mind

The scene’s a gift. Ruth is holding her own with one of her idols while they acknowledge a shared experience: Nas living in the projects while Ruth grew up in a trailer, observing privileged families visit her community as “vacation,” and although she’s fought her way out of the situation, what she’s experiencing now is, as Killer Mike declared, both “cruel” and “hopeful.” In the end, Ruth chooses chaos, and that chaos finds her amid interspersed scenes of kicking back on top of the trailer with Wyatt while they dream about being rich enough to build a swimming pool next to a lake.

Ever so briefly while Ruth clutched a coffee cup during a celebrity encounter, we got to see her act more alive we’ve seen her be during most of the show. She then essentially engineered her own ending by taking out Javi, but one can’t blame her; he embodied all of the cruelty that stole her hope away. Ruth persisted in beginning to build a dream home that Wyatt would love, but she never would have enjoyed any hopefulness without him. Also, Killer Mike exists in the Ozark universe. Oh, and those cookie jar ashes! Ozark is such a great show.

You can watch the full Killer Mike scene below:

Netflix’s ‘Ozark’ is currently streaming in its entirety.

Elon Musk may have spent $44 billion on Twitter, but he didn’t do so while listening to Donald Trump.

The Tesla CEO and ex-boyfriend of Grimes shot down Devin Nunes’ claim that the twice-impeached former president was behind his Twitter acquisition. Nunes, who runs Trump’s social media rival company Truth Social, told the press earlier this week that it was his boss’s idea for Musk to take control of Twitter saying, “we encouraged Elon Musk to buy” because “someone has to take on these tech tyrants. Donald Trump wanted to make sure that the American people got their voice back and that the internet was open and that’s what we are doing.”

Musk who, one could argue, is also a “tech tyrant” clapped back against Trump taking credit for his truly terrible investment in the company tweeting, “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on Truth Social.”

Whether Musk is actually pals with Trump or not is another question. The tech mogul has criticized Trump’s social media platform in the past and his far-right supporters. He also seems happy to let Trump play in his own sandbox while brainstorming ways Twitter might start making money. So far his best idea seems to be to charge companies and businesses (though likely not his own) to use the platform.

Still, seeing as Trump’s Truth Social has experienced some embarrassing setbacks recently, it makes sense that Musk wants to distance himself from another businessman whose grand “free speech” crusade has basically turned out to be a 4-chan knockoff.

(Via Variety)