Any reason for a leader to feed a monster? For a leader to feed a creature that would devour him? If yes, I can’t think of it. I have no idea what possessed Joe Biden and his team to post his decision to quit the presidential race on X. X is of course the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, the Democrats’ nemesis who is doing what he can to defeat them in the November elections.
I asked around about this and got no good answer. X, I was told, though diminished, is still the app of choice. The app people use if they want their shot to be heard around the world. Bunk! As if a traditional statement of resignation issued by the White House would be buried. As if no other social media platform would suffice.
In a piece posted to this site on July 19, “Leadership and Lucre,” I scorned the role of big money in American politics. I focused on Musk who had not only pledged to donate to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign humungous sums of money but who was saying what he wanted when on X to reach his 191 million followers. Musk, I wrote, “uses X to push and promote people and positions he prefers, and to demean and denigrate those he does not.” Just this week he lived up to his billing. Musk posted a manipulated video of Kamala Harris in which she says that Biden is senile, that she does “not know the first thing about running the country,” and that she, as a woman of color, is the “ultimate diversity hire.” Great, Elon. Message received.
Did Biden think that announcing on X would be without consequence? Well, he might’ve thought twice. As it turned out, the president did his nemesis a big favor. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Recent weeks show the potential Musk has at recapturing X’s place in the collective conversation. ‘Ride the information wave,’ Musk encouraged this past week, shortly after Biden made his announcement to exit from the race via X and other social media…. Biden’s post on X garnered more than 380 million views by the following day, and X was credited as being the place where some in the Biden camp learned of the decision.”
Was it predictable that the choice of X as the medium for an announcement that everyone was waiting for would impact X? Yes. Was it predictable that this impact would be positive? Yes. Why then did this leader feed this monster? Beats me.
Beware leaders. If you have power, and are highly visible, everything you do and say matters.