Musk bashes 'right wing echo chamber' Truth Social amid stalled Twitter purchase

Tesla founder Elon Musk bashed former President Donald Trump's social media platform, Truth Social, amid the ongoing drama surrounding his attempt to purchase Twitter.

"It is essentially a rightwing echo chamber. It might as well be called Trumpet," Musk said of the former president's app in an interview with the Financial Times, published Friday.

The billionaire has touted the free speech based changes to the app he plans to make should the deal go through, including the restoration of Trump's account to the platform. Twitter banned Trump from the app due to the chaos that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After being purged from nearly every major platform, Trump created Truth Social.

"I’m not doing Twitter for the money," Musk told the outlet. "It’s not like I’m trying to buy some yacht and I can’t afford it... I don’t own any boats. But I think it’s important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it should be as trusted and transparent as possible."

Musk's motivation as he relayed them to the Times stand somewhat in contrast with his past statements and actions related to the purchase. After negotiating an initial deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion in April, Musk abruptly pulled out of the deal citing concerns about the prevalence of bot accounts on the platform.

Twitter, in turn, sued him to complete the deal. That legal battle came to an equally abrupt end, when a long-defiant Musk offered to honor his original bid, a move that has since led the judge handling the case to stay the suit until late October to allow both parties time to complete the deal. 

Recent reports have suggested that Musk is struggling to raise the capital to reach the $44 billion figure. He reportedly does not wish to sell more Tesla stock to finance the bid, meaning he must seek additional co-investors or pay more out of pocket.

Trump and Musk have previously exchanged jabs at one another in relation to the deal. After the former president called him "another bullshit artist" at a rally, the Tesla founder told Trump to "hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."

To this, Trump recalled instances during which Musk sought federal subsidies for his commercial endeavors and mocked his prospective purchase of Twitter. "Now Elon should focus on getting himself out of the Twitter mess because he could owe $44 billion for something that’s perhaps worthless. Also, lots of competition for electric cars!" he said at the time.