The “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart has responded sharply to Elon Musk after the billionaire called him “an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller” on X.
The exchange began earlier this week when Stewart, on his “Weekly Show” podcast, delivered a scathing critique of Musk’s repeated claims about widespread voter fraud by undocumented noncitizens.
“Let’s talk about the artist formerly known as Twitter,” Stewart said. “And this gets us to the crux of the irony. Elon Musk, for a long time and really incredibly consistently and vehemently, has pushed this idea that undocumented noncitizen voting is rampant.”
He continued: “He’s tweeted about it, I think 1,300 times or interacted with stories about it. The irony of it all is that this guy’s platform, this guy’s algorithm, which he is in charge of, I see his shit on my feed all the time, I don’t ever interact with it, there’s no reason for it to be there.”
Stewart argued that Musk’s control over X’s algorithm and his personal wealth — including more than $250 million in donations to support Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign — have had a far greater impact on American democracy than any supposed noncitizen voting.
Musk, who purchased Twitter (now X) for $44 billion in 2022 and has frequently adjusted its algorithm, reacted on Thursday after seeing a clip of Stewart’s comments shared on his own platform.
“Jon Stewart is an extremely skilled propagandist disguised as a truth-teller,” Musk wrote. He followed up with: “He is a great comedian too.”
Stewart quoted Musk’s post and replied: “Elon Musk is an extremely skilled propagandist.” He stopped there, implying that Musk does not bother with disguise.
Musk responded: “Not as good as you! Stop being so humble.”
Musk has repeatedly promoted the theory that Democrats are “importing” undocumented immigrants to influence elections and alter demographics — a claim Stewart described as baseless and amplified by Musk’s own platform.
Stewart concluded by extending an invitation: “Come on the show!! We’ll talk about how self deprecating we both are!!”
The public back-and-forth has reignited debate over Musk’s influence on political discourse through X, particularly given his financial support for Trump and his role in shaping content visibility on the platform.
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