The more things change the more they stay the same — at least when it comes to the recurring social media spat between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. In a dispatch on X Wednesday night from Mar-a-Lago, where he seems to have taken up permanent residence alongside President-elect Donald Trump, Musk took a fresh shot at Bezos over an alleged election prediction and stock recommendation from the Amazon founder.
“Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that @realDonaldTrump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock,” Musk posted.
Bezos followed up Thursday morning with a short reply: “Nope. 100% not true.” And a community note was added to Musk’s post citing Bezos’ denial. Update: Musk responded to Bezos with “Well, then, I stand corrected,” and a crying emoji face.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Bezos, founder of rival space company Blue Origin, have beefed repeatedly in the past on Twitter — now owned by Musk under the X banner.
The back-and-forth digs over the years between the world’s wealthiest people have included Musk calling out Bezos over space satellites, lunar landers, and more. In 2022, Bezos did weigh in on Musk’s Twitter takeover. And the two traded tweets about whether Twitter’s San Francisco HQ would be converted to a homeless shelter.
Musk’s cozy relationship with Trump and big-bucks backing of his presidential campaign became a significant story leading up to Nov. 5 and now after, with Musk’s appointment, alongside former GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a Department of Government Efficiency.
Bezos, who has been relatively quiet on X in recent years, poked his own head into the election news cycle when he surfaced in July to say that Trump showed “tremendous grace and courage under literal fire” when he was shot at during a campaign rally. The owner of The Washington Post also caused a big stir when he ended the newspaper’s tradition of endorsing presidential candidates, reportedly spiking a planned backing of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The day after the election, Bezos joined the chorus of tech leaders wishing Trump congratulations on his victory. By Thursday morning, Musk’s jab at Bezos had more than 200,000 likes on X and counting. Bezos’ reply had 16,000.