Musk trashes ex-Russian president

Elon Musk reacted to a thread by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in which he posited that in 2023 the US could split up after a civil war and the Twitter CEO could become president of one of the remnants, calling it “epic.” Musk later clarified that he found the predictions “absurd.”

Medvedev now serves as deputy chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, and was given a new senior position in military procurement this week. On Monday, he posted ten potential developments for 2023, with a disclaimer that they were meant to be “wild.”

The predictions ranged from oil being traded at $150 a barrel, the UK reversing Brexit and losing Northern Ireland, to an armed conflict between France and a ‘Fourth Reich’. The latter, according to Medvedev, would include Germany and “its satellites, i.e., Poland, the Baltic states, Czechia, Slovakia, the Kiev Republic, and other outcasts.”

For the US, Medvedev predicted a new civil war, with California and Texas becoming independent.

“Elon Musk will win the presidential election in a number of states which, after the new Civil War’s end, will have been given to the GOP,” he said.

Musk called the series of posts an “epic thread.” Hours later, after a backlash over supposedly betraying the interests of the US and his own businesses, he clarified his position.

“Those are definitely the most absurd predictions I’ve ever heard, while also showing astonishing lack of awareness of the progress of artificial intelligence and sustainable energy,” he tweeted.

Musk and Medvedev have sparred on Twitter in the past. In October, the US billionaire took the Russian official to task over Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. It came just after he complimented Medvedev for his trolling of Liz Truss over her short-lived tenure as UK prime minister.