If you’re one of Elon Musk’s 206 million followers (lucky you, by the way), you’ve probably noticed the world’s richest man has been toying with the idea of buying MSNBC. Or, at the very least, he’s been joshing about it on X (formerly Twitter, in case you’ve been living under a rock), engaging in a pre-Thanksgiving banter with none other than Donald Trump Jr. The whole exchange seemed to be tailor-made to throw a wrench into Rachel Maddow’s holiday plans.
“Hey Elon, I have the funniest idea ever,” Trump Jr. tossed out, referencing a totally bogus rumor that MSNBC was up for sale. “How much does it cost?” Musk replied, clearly in his classic “I might be joking, but who knows?” style. Of course, we all took this as just another round of billionaire boy humor. But here’s the twist: it wasn’t just idle chit-chat. You see, Musk has a history of joking about something that eventually becomes reality. A little while before Musk dropped a cool $44 billion on Twitter (remember that little adventure?), he was making similar “jokes” about wanting to buy the platform. And we all saw how that turned out.
So, could this be another case of Musk merely warming up to drop a couple billion on MSNBC? Eh, probably not. For starters, MSNBC isn’t actually for sale. Sure, Comcast, the parent company, recently decided to spin off its cable properties—USA, Syfy, E!, Oxygen, CNBC, and, yes, MSNBC—into separate entities. But, crucially, all of those networks will remain under the same ownership group, which means Elon wouldn’t get the bargain of a lifetime he might have been hoping for.
Also, while Musk’s net worth is an eye-popping $350 billion (with a B), a lot of that is tied up in his ventures with Tesla and SpaceX. Plus, the $13 billion loan he took on to buy Twitter is costing him a cool $1.5 billion annually in interest alone. So, while Musk could afford to buy something shiny and new, now is probably not the ideal time to purchase a cable news network—especially one that seems to be shedding viewers faster than you can say “outrageous tweet.” According to reports, MSNBC has seen its audience shrink by about half since Trump’s election, which doesn’t exactly scream “goldmine.”
But, let’s face it: this is Elon Musk we’re talking about. When has common sense ever stopped him from making a major move? It’s entirely possible he could wake up one day and think, “You know what would be fun? Owning MSNBC.” That, of course, might be why Joe Rogan, Trump-supporting podcaster and occasional philosopher, seems to be ready for a dramatic career pivot. He posted to Musk: “If you buy MSNBC, I would like Rachel Maddow’s job. I’ll wear the same outfit and glasses.” So, let’s see… Joe Rogan replacing Rachel Maddow? I think we can all agree that would make for one wild news broadcast.
So, while Musk might not be plotting a hostile takeover of MSNBC (yet), the whole thing definitely makes you wonder what he’s planning next. Will he drop another billion on a random impulse buy? Will Rogan join the cable news circus? At this point, anything seems possible. Stay tuned, because in the world of Musk, reality is often stranger than fiction. Or in this case, maybe a little bit of both.
