With the American flag and the “Trump Now” banner firmly attached to the back of his black Cybertruck, Jay Song parks on the heights overlooking the golf course where Donald Trump is giving a press conference on Friday, near Los Angeles.
With his engine barely switched off, this supporter of the Republican billionaire is joined by a gray version of Tesla’s cubic pickup, on which the star-spangled banner also flies.
“Oh! And I thought I was going to be a little original,” laughs Mike, another fervent Trump supporter, as he gets out of the vehicle. “This is awesome, I love it! So cool!”
The former president’s supporters are usually recognized by their red “Make America Great Again” caps, sold by his campaign team for a handful of greenbacks.
But in Rancho Palos Verdes, a posh Los Angeles suburb where the businessman owns a luxurious 18-hole course with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean, Elon Musk’s $100,000 SUV is a much more distinguished political symbol. Especially since the Tesla and social network X boss made public his support for Donald Trump this summer.
“I’m very happy that they’re getting along, Elon has done so much for freedom of expression,” Mike told AFP, refusing to give his full name.
The 50-year-old immediately bonds with Jay Song: after exchanging the serial numbers of their vehicles, they discover that they both work in retail, believe that the 2020 election was “stolen” and buy Teslas because they are “cool cars”, more than out of concern for the environment.
“The best thing Trump did was withdraw from the Paris climate accords,” Song said. “It was not good for America, China and India could do whatever they wanted until 2030, but we had all the restrictions right away.”
– “One-way” press –
Both men are also disappointed with Barack Obama, for whom they voted in 2008.
“Obama is a bad guy who lies elegantly, Trump is a good person who tells the truth crudely,” Jay Song says.
The Republican tribune “carries our voice,” insists this 54-year-old Korean-American, very angry with the American political “establishment” and the traditional press.
“Trump believes in the Constitution and the country, unlike many politicians. They are happy to collaborate with the old Twitter or Meta, which censor free speech,” Mike counters.
Since Elon Musk bought Twitter to transform it into X, experts and authorities have been concerned about the increased circulation of false information on the platform.
This week, Mr. Musk himself joked about unfounded rumors that Haitian migrants were eating cats in Ohio, without correcting them, on his social media account.
Donald Trump used this fanciful theory during his debate against Kamala Harris on Tuesday, a choice that earned him a live correction from ABC reporters.
But that only reinforces Mike’s belief that the American press is working for the Democrats.
“It’s always one-sided,” he sighs. “The coverage on the major networks CBS, NBC or ABC is 80% negative for Trump and 80% positive for Harris.”
“It makes me laugh to hear them say: ‘If Trump comes back, it’s the end of democracy,'” he smiles, without mentioning the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “He has already been in power for four years, why hasn’t he finished with democracy then?”
rfo/mdz
