‘Does he not know how the USA chant goes?’: Elon Musk clowned on for awkwardly butchering iconic USA chant at the Donald Trump rally

On Oct. 28, 2024, Donald Trump hosted a gigantic rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The whole affair was unfortunate, to put it mildly. You’ve probably seen the headlines about the awful racist jokes that were made, or the other awful racist jokes that were made, or the anti-immigrant (and racist) declarations made by various speakers.

It was a dark affair to behold for those of us outside the MAGA world. But even in the darkest, most xenophobic moments in American history, the internet can find at least one moment of absurdity and dumbness to momentarily take the edge off. Double points if it involves Elon Musk, the annoying rich guy who ruined Twitter, who is now straight-up campaigning for Trump and claiming he’s “Dark MAGA”—as if MAGA wasn’t already dark enough, as previously discussed.

And so, in the case of Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, the internet found a brief moment of solace in the fact that Musk cannot effectively do the most basic act of American nationalism: he apparently can’t do the “USA!” chant right.

Musk butchers chant, is laughed at on his own website

A video of Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally went viral on Twitter / X, Musk’s own website. In the video, Musk attempts to lead the crowd in chanting “USA! USA!”—you know, the basic chant you hear at matches at the Olympics or from your dry, satirical friends when they’re talking about how America is the leading country in the world for mass shootings.

Before watching this video, I never considered that there was a “right” way to do the chant. It’s the most basic chant on the planet. You just shout the letters with equal emphasis. But watching Musk attempt it reminds me out the old outtakes of basketball star Michael Jordan inexplicably not being able to say the phrase, “Gatorade: is it in you?,” like a normal human being. (Although just brining that up feels like a disservice to Jordan, who doesn’t deserve to be compared to Musk in any other way.)

Musk’s version of the chant drags out the “A” into “eyyy” in the strangest possible way. He’s also not shouting—he sounds like a very high college student at a party in someone’s basement. It also ends is a “whuaaaaghhhhh!” that might be endearing if it were from someone who was not obsessed with giving random women his sperm.

But yeah, the rest of the rally? Woof. Go vote, please.