The puzzling billionaire Elon Musk changed his nickname on the character from the film “Gladiator”.
Close to President Donald Trump, of whom he has become an important advisor, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX also swapped his profile photo for an image of “Pepe the Frog”, a popular cartoon character who had however been associated with the extreme right during the first election of Donald Trump and described as a “hate sign” by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
As usual, Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, who bought Twitter to rename it X in 2022, gave no explanation for these changes which caused the buzz. His new pseudonym may be an allusion to Maximus Decimus Meridius – the Roman general played by Russell Crowe in 2000's “Gladiator” – and to “kek”, a phrase frequently used by Internet users ofextreme right and many trolls to replace “lol”.
Before changing his pseudonym, Mr. Musk posted an announcement on X: “Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE.” PoE is an apparent reference to the popular video game Path of Exile. Following Mr. Musk's change of pseudonym, the value of the memecoin Kekius Maximus – a cryptocurrency inspired by an internet meme – soared by nearly 1,400% on Tuesday afternoon, according to the CoinGecko site as Internet users question to find out if it is a joke or a hidden message in favor of cryptocurrencies.
The billionaire will be one of the key figures during the mandate of Trump who appointed him to head a commission for “governmental efficiency”a body created to cut federal budgets, one of the workhorses of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
