Elon Musk’s appearance at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday inspired a massive rally in the Dark MAGA coin after the X.com owner told those in attendance that the he election was an “unavoidable situation”.
“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA,” Musk, wearing a black “Make America Great Again” hat, told the crowd.
The Dark MAGA meme coin (DMAGA) then surged over 316% since then.
The rally was Trump’s first in Butler since he survived an assassination attempt in July. Shortly after the shooting, Musk supported Trump, citing his response to the attack.
At the time, President Joe Biden was still running for re-election. He withdrew from the presidential race on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
What is Dark MAGA?
Dark MAGA is just one of several irreverent tokens that have emerged in recent years, seemingly inspired by Trump, who was once a crypto-skeptic but is now an ardent supporter of the sector.
It takes its name from a series of “Dark MAGA” memes created in 2024, depicting Republican candidate Trump as a vengeful and authoritarian figure, often with laser eyes. This was a riff on the “Dark Brandon” meme, which emerged as a satirical pro-Biden response depicting the president often with laser red eyes.
And “Dark Brandon” is, in turn, a riff on “Let’s go, Brandon!” — a conservative euphemism that Trump supporters have used to criticize Biden. The message “Let’s go, Brandon!” The meme was ironically adopted by Biden supporters, who co-opted “Dark Brandon” as a symbol of Biden’s accomplishments, subverting the original satirical intent.
But Musk’s embrace of Dark MAGA seemed serious.
Musk flips the script
Once Trump introduced Musk on stage, the Tesla CEO jumped into the air several times to applause from his supporters.
Musk urged those in attendance to vote and warned in his speech that “this will be the last election” if Trump does not win in November.
Musk was apparently flipping the script on Trump’s critics, who often cite examples of Trump’s autocratic tendencies to express concerns about the future of American democracy under his influence.
In addition to attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump pressured state officials, like Georgia’s secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to declare him the winner. The twice-impeached former president also expresses admiration for authoritarian figures like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Musk and Trump as a couple
Dark MAGA is not the first satirical cryptocurrency inspired by the Musk/Trump alliance. Remember how the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) coin surged after Musk tweeted his desire to lead a government efficiency commission if Trump is re-elected.
Since then, the value of the meme coin has fallen off a cliff.
Meanwhile, political polls show a tight race between Harris and Trump.
Harris led Trump by 3.4 points in the national average maintained by The Hill/Decision Desk headquarters as of Friday evening.
Both candidates appealed to billionaires. Besides Musk, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, the Winklevoss twins and casino mogul Steve Wynn have all expressed support for Trump’s re-election.
Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs; Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn; Illinois Governor JB Pritzker; and Mark Cuban, minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, supported Harris.
