Elon Musk’s latest memes spark controversy as he attacks Volodymyr Zelensky | indy100

Related video: Moment Trump interrupts Elon Musk to 'let the cabinet speak for a second'

Reuters

Doge boss and Trump ally Elon Musk has been known to share some awful memes on his Twitter/X account, and in his latest demonstration of his warped sense of humour, the Tesla owner posted a meme taking aim at Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – just days after the leader’s heated meeting with US president Donald Trump and vice president, JD Vance.

As a reminder, Vance accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” when he met with the Republicans on Friday, while Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart was “gambling with World War Three”.

Trump and Zelensky were meant to hold a joint press conference following the meeting in the Oval Office, but the dramatic clash resulted in the Ukrainian president leaving the White House and the event being cancelled.

Since then, Musk has waded into the spat by sharing a meme based on ‘the trolley problem’ – the ethical dilemma and thought experiment which asks people whether they would take one life to save several more.

In the illustrated version shared by Musk, several people are tied up on the track with the tram heading towards them. At the lever is a figure labelled “Zelensky”, with text next to it reading: “You can stop the tram at any moment, but you refuse because you need guarantees that it won’t start moving again in a few years”.

Talk of guarantees comes amid Trump moving to end the war in Ukraine, and Zelensky stressing that “for peace to be real, we need real security guarantees”.

Musk also went on to share an illustration of a bloodied chessboard, with chess pieces toppled on the board and the white and black kings and queens gathered at a smaller table to the side.

Labelling the graphic “the reality of war”, the billionaire added: “Leaders and diplomats enjoy Michelin-starred meals, while soldiers die in trenches.”

Except, when it came to the trolley problem meme, people noticed one key individual was missing from the graphic:

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Some even “fixed” the meme by adding their own text to it:

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As for the chessboard graphic, one Twitter/X user claimed Musk was “acting like he wouldn’t be at that table” surrounded by the king and queen pieces:

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The two posts were shared over a weekend which also saw Zelensky attend an emergency summit of European leaders, convened by UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in London.

Despite French president Emmanual Macron claiming France and Britain were backing the idea of a limited ceasefire, armed forces minister Luke Pollard said told Times Radio on Monday that “no agreement has been made on what a truce looks like”.

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