Don Lemon got caught in a verbal war against a TikToker over Elon Musk’s influence on President-elect Donald Trump.
The former CNN anchor spoke to various people in New York City over the weekend about the claim Democrats were pushing that X’s CEO was shadowing “President Musk” over Trump, based on Musk leading a conservative online opposition to a bipartisan agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown.
“Who is the real president-elect, do you think?” Lemon asked.
“Donald Trump won, I believe,” replied TikToker and former pro-footballer Will John.
“Democratic lawmakers in Washington are calling Elon Musk now and saying that Donald Trump is the vice president or the chief of communications,” Lemon continued.
“What? Wait a second, no. Nobody said that,” John said.
Lemon cut him off, “Really? You didn’t pay attention—”
“Absolutely not. I’m paying attention to what I’m doing in my day, so I can try to have a better life and move forward,” said John.
Lemon then told John to look up “President Musk” on his phone to prove his point, which John obliged.
“That’s already a loaded question you realize,” John pointed out as he watched.
John found reports from Axios, Business Insider, ABC News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Atlantic using the term “President Musk,” which Lemon considered a win.
“We don’t trust any of them. The common man doesn’t believe any of that,” John shot back. “I don’t believe any of this. I don’t trust any of them. I don’t believe any of this. We are the common man. We don’t believe any of that. No one trusts the government. No one believes mainstream news. We don’t trust any of them anymore. Independent news, we own the news now. People trust me. They don’t trust MSNBC because I care and I’m actually one of them.”
“I couldn’t disagree with you,” Lemon agreed.
Lemon asked the same question to other pedestrians to mixed results on his TikTok account.
“I have not seen this personally. I think it’s weird that he’s in that position of power for people to call him that. I don’t know if he is the best person to represent us in our government,” one woman replied.
“I mean this is just online chat,” said another woman. “I guess Elon Musk wasn’t in the last election, so how could he be president-elect?”
A third woman said: “Well, not election-style, but he’s definitely influencing the government.”
“How much longer do you think Donald Trump will put up with someone calling Elon Musk President Musk? Lemon followed.
“Forever. He is throwing money there. He likes money, – answered the woman.
One man said he actually heard the term “President Musk,” though he argued that Musk was the vice president-elect while Trump was still the president-elect. However, he said that will change.
“He has lost. He has run away. Musk is even worse, hailing this guy as a political man. It’s over. Life in America is over. Just look at what they do,” he said.
Some liberal media pundits like Lemon also insisted that Musk was either co-president or president himself over Trump.
“Elon Musk, the guy who really runs things. He’s not just Trump’s co-president. I think that’s a very low title,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said during his monologue on Wednesday. “He’s the leader, and House Republicans certainly know who they’re taking their marching orders from.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump-Vance Transition spokesperson and incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt threw cold water on the media talking point.
“As soon as President Trump released his official position on CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Stop,” she said.
Fox News’ Nicholas Lanum contributed to this report.
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