'MAGA martyr': Why 'charmless' Elon Musk doesn’t make a 'compelling' victim

20 March

Billionaire SpaceX/Tesla/X.com leader Elon Musk is drawing scathing criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill in response to the mass layoffs of government workers being carried out by the second Trump Administration with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk heads.

On the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) was especially critical of layoffs at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) — telling fellow lawmakers, "Elon Musk is saying it plainly: Republicans' big goal is to 'eliminate' — his words — Social Security and Medicare benefits. Are Senate Republicans fine with the terrible things Elon Musk and DOGE are doing to Social Security? Do they agree with Mr. Musk that it's one giant scam?"

Criticism of Musk and DOGE is coming from Never Trump conservatives as well, including MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, the Washington Post's George Will, columnist Matt K. Lewis and former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania) — all of whom believe the DOGE cuts are being carried out recklessly.

Musk is responding to all this criticism by trying to paint himself as a victim of persecution. But Salon's Amanda Marcotte, in a blistering article published on March 20, lays out some reasons why she believes Musk is unconvincing as a "MAGA martyr."

"No one has yearned to call himself a victim of 'cancel culture' more than Elon Musk," Marcotte explains. "In one sense, he's succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, becoming a favorite villain of the left, the target of non-stop scorn and mockery. But he keeps failing at the second, equally crucial aspect of becoming an icon for self-pitying fascists: selling himself as a MAGA martyr."

Marcotte adds, "Even by the low standards of people who love Donald Trump, Musk is too charmless, self-pitying, and privileged to make a compelling character in the endlessly idiotic drama of right-wing outrage at liberals who commit the high crime of not liking them."

The Salon journalist stresses that Musk's "woe-is-me campaign" falls painfully flat because he is such an unsympathetic figure. Musk, she notes, recently said that the "fundamental weakness of western civilization is empathy."

"Almost no one propped up by MAGA media as a martyr deserves sympathy," Marcotte writes. "Still, Musk is a hard sell even in the right-wing media ecosystem where 'victims' are people who were wished 'happy holidays' at Starbucks or tied for 5th place with a trans woman at a single swim meet. The man might as well be wiping away his crocodile tears with $1000 bills."

Amanda Marcotte's full Salon article is available at this link.

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