Trump surrogate Elon Musk sends creepy tweet to Taylor Swift as campaign goes beyond weird

In politics, it's always good to lean hard into a wildly dishonest claim that dehumanizes a whole swath of the population while having one of your top surrogates mock a stratospherically beloved pop star with a creepy comment that sounds like a sexist divorced dad hitting on a younger woman.

Is that right? OK, maybe that’s not right. That sounds like bad political maneuvering.

But it's exactly what Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign has been doing since he staggered off the Philadelphia debate stage Tuesday night after being soundly bested by Vice President Kamala Harris. Republicans are echoing Trump's grotesque lie that immigrants are eating people's pets while watching billionaire Trump superfan Elon Musk oafishly try to get Taylor Swift's attention

Harris’ broadly praised performance was followed by an endorsement from Swift, one of the most influential figures in America: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”

She signed it “Childless Cat Lady,” a gentle middle finger to Trump’s running mate JD Vance’s past misogynist ramblings.

Things went bad for Trump, then Musk came along and made them worse

For Trump, the bad-debate/Swift-endorsement combo was the political equivalent of losing a prize fight then leaving the arena and having a piano dropped on your head.

So Trump’s billionaire wingman Elon Musk swooped in to save the day, posting on the massive social media platform he owns: "Fine Taylor ... you win ... I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”

Ewww. Allow me to speak for many Americans when I say, “Dude, what the hell? That’s creepy AF.”

Musk is 53 and Swift is 34, and while I’m sure his weirdo lizard brain thought that was a funny joke, it most definitely was not.

Does Swift's endorsement matter? Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris. It's a big deal – even if you don't think so.

Swift's endorsement was calm and kind, unlike everything Trump does

Swift posted a thoughtful endorsement showing respect for those who disagree and encouraging people to read up on the candidates to reach their own decisions. Musk responded with the equivalent of: “HAH HAH I WILL PUT A BABY IN YOU IF YOU WANT SILLY CAT LADY!!”

Musk’s loutish post is emblematic of the toilet bowl Trump’s reelection campaign is circling. (Correction: The campaign has already circled the bowl, moved through the sewer and is now in the sludge pit outside the wastewater treatment plant.)

Lies about pets being eaten show Trump's campaign is beyond weird

In the days leading up to the debate, Trump and Co. had been peddling a grotesque and wildly xenophobic lie that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets. It was based on nothing more than racist right-wing fever dreams. Officials in the Ohio town at the center of some of these lies made that perfectly clear.

But Vance, Musk and Trump himself posted scurrilous memes with the sole intent of other-izing an innocent community of immigrants and trying to scare white people into believing something stupid.

Republicans want this? Trump goes full loon in debate with Harris. Republicans, you sure you want this guy?

And then, during the debate, when we know full well that Trump’s handlers just wanted him to act marginally normal, Trump brought up the pet eating nonsense.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he bellowed, like an older relative you wish would stop coming to family dinners.

Trump and Vance need to stop trying to make 'pet eating' happen

It seemed hard to believe. A candidate at a presidential debate was ranting and raving about something wholly fabricated and, worse yet, a dehumanizing canard that would show up on Page 1 of “How to Be a Racist.”

But there Trump was. And after the debate, in the media spin room, there was his running mate doubling down on the offensive bull, telling CNN: “First of all, city officials have not said it's not true. They said they don't have all the evidence.”

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None of this is the sign of a campaign doing well – quite the opposite

If you’re insisting dogs and cats are being eaten by people you’re opportunistically trying to denigrate, you’re losing. Period. Nobody is buying this hogwash. All it’s doing is forcing hardworking American writers like me to waste time looking up synonyms for “weird” and “awful.” (Found some! How about “freakish” and “abominable”?)

I can’t quite imagine how the Trump campaign is going to follow up “THEY’RE EATING OUR DOGS!” and Musk going full creeper on one of the most popular women in the world.

But hey, the week is young. And they’ve got Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on their team. I’m sure they’ll find a path downward.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk's creepy Taylor Swift tweet just made things worse for Trump