Inside Kanye West and Elon Musk’s decade-long bromance: despite social media controversies, the Tesla founder has still got Ye’s back – together with Donald Trump they make ‘The Three Musketeers’
- SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk was forced to delete a meme after he showed his support for disgraced rapper Kanye West – who just bought conservative social media site Parler
- Musk calls Ye a ‘member of the cultural pantheon’, while Kanye has returned the love, calling Tesla the ‘funnest car’ he had ever driven
Musk was later forced to delete a meme he had put together after mounting pressure from online fans who called him out in the wake of West’s recent controversial outbursts. Here’s how it played out and how the spotlight turned on BFFs Musk and West – one of the most powerful bromances of our time.
The Three Musketeers
The drama began on October 18 when Musk shared a meme depicting himself, Kanye West and former US president Donald Trump as the fictional Three Musketeers. This was apparently in relation to the three of them running separate social media websites.
It was recently announced that West would be acquiring the conservative social media site Parler, while Trump launched Twitter-alternative, Truth Social, in February this year. In August, Musk teased about creating his own social media site called X.com.
The billionaire soon deleted the tweet after widespread criticism of his support for West and Trump, both of whom have been slammed for their allegedly anti-Semitic remarks. West was booted from Twitter and Instagram after his recent posts sparked allegations of hate speech, and there have been growing calls for the industry to speak out and boycott him. Musk has not responded to questions on why he supported West’s move, but the friendship between the pair is a decade-strong relationship.
The sweet beginning
In 2011 West was given a private tour of the SpaceX rocket factory by Musk. A vintage picture of the two went viral at the time. Referring to their friendship, which started in 2011, Musk called it a “hell of a decade” on Twitter.
The cheerleader effect
In 2015, the SpaceX boss wrote the blurb for West inclusion in Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People”. In the bio, Musk referred to West as a “member of the cultural pantheon”. He praised the musician for pushing boundaries and encouraging people to do the same.