Mint Quick Edit | Virtual Bravado 2.0: Elon Musk versus Nicolas Maduro

Musk has linked Maduro’s continuation as president to the fight’s outcome.  (AFP)
Musk has linked Maduro’s continuation as president to the fight’s outcome. (AFP)

Summary

  • Tesla chief and Space X founder Elon Musk accepted a challenge to fight Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Businessmen play-acting on social media is one thing—as in the earlier Musk-Zuckerberg cage-fight banter on X—but this is truly odd.

Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to leap into the ring for a slugfest, again, this time to take on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who dared him on television to an anytime-anywhere match. “I accept," Musk replied to an X user who posted a video clip of Maduro challenging him. 

“Elon Musk. Whoever messes with me, dries up. Whoever messes with Venezuela dries up... You want to fight? Let’s have it... Just say where," the post translates Maduro as having said. Maduro reportedly even instructed security agencies in Venezuela to facilitate Musk’s entry, while Musk has linked Maduro’s continuation as president to the fight’s outcome. 

“If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela. If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars," he posted. This exchange comes amid Maduro’s controversial election win that many democracy activists (and Musk) have decried. 

Also read: Elon Musk to fight with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on national television

The owner of X had once had a similar public exchange with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who he dared to a caged punch-up that never took place. Businessmen play-acting on social media is one thing, though, while national leaders doing it is odd. But then, the bravado of a duel has long fed the Western imagination.

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