Elon Musk has a failure to launch problem. I’m not talking about his SpaceX rockets, which seem to be doing fine. I’m referring to the myriad promises and proclamations that Musk makes, only to back of or ignore later. The latest example is his much-publicized purchase of social media platform Twitter. Musk made headlines when he announced plans to take over Twitter and make it a “real” forum for free speech and free the site from “censorship”. It’s a bold move for an out-of-touch billionaire to say, “this social media site? Not nearly enough harassment and hate speech for my taste!” Right-wing fanboys lauded Musk’s plan, and alt-right mouthpieces like Roger Stone and Tucker Carlson assumed their accounts would be reinstated immediately (they weren’t).

But Musk’s plan to purchase Twitter has hit several speed bumps, and he has since tried to back out of the deal. Musk cited bots and fake accounts as his reasons for backing out, despite waiving “due diligence” before making his offer. The reality is, this was an ego whim by the world’s richest man who is now seeing the financial repercussions of his cavalier decision making. As our own Vivian Kane reported, “He has lots of reasons to want out of this $44 billion deal. He had to secure a $6.25 billion loan against Tesla stock, which has been plummeting, putting him on the hook for that amount if it falls below a certain threshold. Twitter’s stock has also been sinking and is currently sitting well below where it was when Musk made his offer. But if Musk backs out of the deal, he’ll have to pay Twitter a $1 billion penalty.”