Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Javier Milei: This How X Can Influence Argentine Elections

The eccentric businessman Elon Musk got involved in the Argentine presidential campaign by supporting the new way of disseminating the interviews of the controversial journalist Tucker Carlson on X (formerly Twitter), including the last one carried out with the far-right candidate of the South American country, Javier Milei.

The billionaire promotes X highlighting Carlson's contents and his audience's expansion on the social network. There, the journalist posts his interviews after being fired of Fox News. One of his most viewed videos is the one with Javier Milei, winner of the August primaries, who has a good chance of being president and is highly followed by the young electorate in Argentina.

"Gigantic difference, no matter how you count it," Musk commented this weekend, reposting a message comparing Carlson's average audience on X (265 million) with that of Fox News (3 million).

A day earlier, Musk had warned "those considering putting their work on platform traditional news standards," but "views of his X episodes now exceed the population of the United States."

"Talk to the Earth through X!" Musk promoted the social network whose name he changed after buying it for $44 billion last year.

Who is Tucker Carlson?

Carlson is the former star host of Fox News and one of the most influential figures of the American far-right, along with former President Donald Trump (2017-2021). Carlson was fired this year for allegedly spreading falsehoods about alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential elections in the United States, when Democrat Joe Biden won.

The richest man in the world, the largest shareholder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla has always declared himself an ultraliberal, and in recent times he is increasingly closer to the movements of this sign in the United States and in different countries, at the same time that distances itself from all progressive currents.

Carlson, with more than 10 million followers on X, relaunch his programm there. The pisodes 23 and 24 were dedicated to Argentina and Javier Milei.

What does all this have to do with the elections in Argentina?

"Very interesting talk that goes far beyond Argentina in the topics discussed," was Musk's comment in the interview with Milei on September 17, after he had commented "interesting" days before, upon knowing when it was going to be published.

The American journalist traveled to Buenos Aires to interview Milei, went into a "cave", the stalls where you can buy and sell dollars at the informal or "blue" exchange rate, and ate Argentine meat.

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"Hyperinflation and reckless monetary policy could soon devastate the global economy. We traveled to Argentina, where it already happened," Carlson published, after the price index reached 124.4% year-on-year last August in the South American country, which suffers from strong macroeconomic imbalances.

In the talk with Carlson, Milei defended Trump ("he fully understood that the fight is against socialism and statists") and punished Pope Francis ("he is on the side of bloody dictatorships"), he spoke out against abortion, of climate change, the LGBT 'lobby' and radical feminism and repeated that as president he will not do business with China or "any" "communist" country.

Javier Milei and his followers

The libertarian candidate highlighted in X that the interview had more than 300 million views in 12 hours, so it was the "most viewed in History", an affirmation that left in Argentina some suspects of manipulation.

The fervor of Milei's followers on social networks once again rose to the skies, since the militancy for the candidate who obtained first place (29.86%) in the primaries on August 13 has a prominent presence in the virtuality.

Earlier this month, Carlson teased his meeting with Milei by uploading a photo of the two on X and introducing the politician as the "enemy of the Washington Post and probably the next president of Argentina".

On that occasion, Musk commented that this "would be a big change"; to which Milei responded by inviting the owner of X and Carlson to visit the South American country next year if he wins the elections on October 22.

But Musk deleted the comment and the euphoria of Milei's followers was transferred to his detractors.

Milei will compete mainly with the former Minister of Security of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), Patricia Bullrich (center-right), and the current Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, of Unión por la Patria (Peronism).