‘Sounds Like He’s Trying To Be Trump’: Jim Acosta, Ana Navarro, and Molly Jong-Fast Analyze Elon Musk and AOC Twitter Beef

On CNN, host Jim Acosta talked with guests Ana Navarro and Molly Jong-Fast about a tweet exchange between Elon Musk and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and what it might mean in light of Twitter’s board accepting Musk’s purchase offer.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted this week that she is “Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special.”

Musk jokingly replied to that tweet: “Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy ☺️”

It’s a pretty common Twitter joke, to suggest a subtweet it about you, and AOC immediately replied that she was actually talking about Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

“I was talking about Zuckerberg but ok,” she wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

Acosta brought up that exchange, but not the tweet deletion, with his guests on Saturday. Jong-Fast argued that Musk may think the attention is driving interest in Twitter, but is getting “over his skis.”

“If I were a shareholder in one of these companies, I would not like it,” she said.

Acosta replied to that cogent analysis by speculating that Musk wants to be Donald Trump.

“Yeah, it almost sounds like he’s trying to be Trump,” he said. “You know, Trump’s not on Twitter, so he’s trying to be Trump.”

For her part, Ana Navarro wondered why important people with many responsibilities have time to beef on Twitter, referring to the tweets she was participating in a panel discussion about on a news network.

JIM ACOSTA: There’s been this Twitter spat going on between Elon Musk, who has been tweeting a lot lately, but this spat between Musk and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she had posted something about a billionaire with a big ego problem. Musk, I guess, took that to mean him, even though she later said it was about Zuckerberg. Anyway, he ended up posting Stop hitting on me to her on Twitter. I mean, it went back and forth. What do you make, Molly, of what Elon Musk is doing right now with Twitter?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: You know, he’s getting a lot of attention, which it seems like might be his goal. I think if I were him, I would not want this kind of attention. It seems very negative. But, you know, he was making suggestions about psychiatric medicine earlier today. I mean, he’s really kind of getting over his skis. I think he thinks that’s exciting. I think he thinks that’s bringing people to the social network. I, I don’t know. We’ll see how it plays out. If I were a shareholder in one of these companies, I would not like it.

JIM ACOSTA: Yeah, it almost sounds like he’s trying to be Trump. You know, Trump’s not on Twitter, so he’s trying to be Trump.

MOLLY JONG-FAST: Well, I also think he thinks the attention is good for him, which I don’t necessarily think.

ANA NAVARRO: I don’t understand how people can be so rich, can be running businesses, can be in Congress and have time for Twitter spats and back and forth. I mean, it’s like, do you not have something better to do? Don’t you think that if you had billions and billions of dollars, you could be in a yacht in the Mediterranean instead of getting into some Twitter spat with a congresswoman who’s not even your congressperson?

JIM ACOSTA: With running all these important companies.

ANA NAVARRO: I mean, and the congressperson, by the way, should be working, too. I don’t get all of these congresspeople who all they do is fight on on Twitter. For the love of God, go pass some legislation. You, Elon? I don’t know. Go. Go to space. That sounds good. Stay there.

JIM ACOSTA: Exactly. And in the meantime, we’ll go back to work.

Although AOC deleted the tweet, she wasn’t shy about sharing screenshots of her own deleted tweet, despite her offering the rationale that she’d deleted it because “I try to avoid giving people with massive ego complexes like this the attention and QTs/replies they crave and are seeking (when I can help it 😉).”

Watch the clip above, via CNN.