Trending On Twitter: Elon Musk Generates Heaps Of Ridicule And Sympathy For Nixing His Twitter Purchase

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the news Elon Musk was canceling his purchase of Twitter Inc TWTR set off a firestorm among the platform’s denizens, with most of the reaction skewing heavily against the Tesla Inc TSLA chieftain.

Musk Bashing: New York Times NYT columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman combined Musk’s actions with the downfall of the U.K.’s brash prime minister, tweeting, “Someone has to say it: given his evidently poor impulse control, Elon Musk is looking like the Boris Johnson of tech.”

Celebrity gossip columnist Perez Hilton offered a rare foray into tech industry happenings by recalling news of Musk’s carnal activities, tweeting, “Yep, this is definitely because of spam bots and has nothing to do with a scandal about impregnating employees that just dropped.”

The progressive-focused Occupy Democrats was considerably less playful, tweeting, “BREAKING: Twitter's chairman announces that the company will pursue legal action against Republican billionaire Elon Musk for trying to slither out of his "deal" to buy the company — throwing a major wrench in his attention-seeking scheme. RT IF YOU HOPE THEY MAKE ELON PAY!”

And “Our America” podcast co-host and Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett put the situation in monetary perspective, tweeting, “Elon Musk lost $70 billion this year. The market tanked, his sexual misconduct cost him billions, and he had to sell 10 million shares in his company to afford Twitter. Now Twitter is going to take him to court for reneging on the deal and will take even more.”

On The Other Hand: Still, Musk had his defenders.

Graham Allen, host of the conservative-focused “Dear America Podcast,” tweeted, “So it’s officially confirmed by @elonmusk TWITTER SUCKS!!!!”

BlazeTV host Steve Deace opined, “Prediction: Elon Musk still ends up buying Twitter but for a lot less than $44 billion.”

Ian Miles Cheong, host of the YouTube series "Catch Up," predicted, "It’s not over yet. Elon Musk maintains that Twitter breached the agreement multiple times. There is room to negotiate a new deal for a much lower price than $54.20 per share."

And Vice writer Anna Merlan gave the South Africa-born mogul a back-handed compliment by tweeting, “Elon Musk has apparently never pulled out before so this is really a surprise.”

Photo: National Archives