Elon Musk said Donald Trump should forget about running for president in 2024 and instead should “sail into the sunset”, presumably to make way for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whom he supports.

In a series of tweets to his 100 million followers on Monday night, Musk pointed out Trump, now 76, would be 82 at the end of a second term, and “that is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America”. He also said there was “too much drama” when Trump was in office.

This marked the first time that Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc, has said Trump should forgo another campaign. In an interview with Bloomberg News last month, Musk said he was undecided about whom to support when asked if he’d back Trump, who has strongly hinted at another run.

He added that DeSantis, who’s running for re-election and has shown growing strength in early polls among Republican 2024 hopefuls, would “win easily” against US President Joe Biden.

Musk’s tweets came in response to criticism directed at him by Trump at a rally in Alaska on Saturday.

Referring to Musk’s assertion that he’d never voted Republican until this June, Trump said that contradicted what Musk had told him. The former president followed with an expletive-laden description of the world’s richest man and voiced his judgment on the Twitter Inc acquisition agreement that Musk struck but is now trying to walk away from, calling it “rotten”.

Although Musk has been keen to share his political opinions, nearly all of the focus on him in recent days has been on the Twitter drama. Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said the company would pursue legal action in order to close the transaction “on the price and terms agreed by Mr Musk”.

The company has hired merger-law heavyweight Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and aims to file suit early this week, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

In the Bloomberg interview, Musk said he was willing to put a “non-trivial” amount of as much as US$25mil in a super political action committee.

He has been steadily escalating his criticisms of Biden, saying that the president is too beholden to labour and that Democrats stymie business.

Biden, in turn, has shrugged off Musk’s jabs, including warnings on the economy. Earlier this month he dismissively wished the billionaire “lots of luck” in efforts to land on the moon.

 - Bloomberg