‘Avengers’: Trump, Musk entourage divides internet

Trump was joined by a star studded entourage at Saturday’s highly anticipated UFC match.

Donald Trump’s star-studded entourage at Saturday’s UFC match has sparked a mixed reaction online with some going so far to praise the squad of celebrities and cabinet picks to the ‘Avengers’ who will ‘save America’.

The president-elect attended UFC 309 in New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden on Saturday, sitting ringside with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, UFC CEO Dana White, House Speaker Mike Johnson and musician Kid Rock.

Trump was also seen rubbing shoulders with UFC host and podcaster Joe Rogan as well as cabinet picks Robert F Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard.

(L-R) Dana White, President-elect Donald Trump, Kid Rock and Elon Musk pose for a photo during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Footage shared online shows Trump receiving a hero’s welcome as he walked out to a packed arena of roaring fans alongside White, as Musk followed in a group behind.

“Power team!!! RFK is there too,” one person commented on a video of the boisterous entrance on X.

“The real avengers,” said another, while a third added: “Avengers team ready to go save America”.

“The BOSS is back in NYC, taking his victory lap,” another comment read.

“The energy is insane,” another wrote.

Incoming American President, Donald Trumps arrived at the UFC at Madison Square Garden today with Elon Musk and other stars. Picture: X

However, others were less thrilled by Trump’s choice of company.

“Just f***ing weird” one person commented on a photo of Trump, Musk and Rock.

“Sounds like the line-up for a reality TV show none of us signed up for,” another wrote in a separate post on X.

Trump attended the highly anticipated event with the star studded crew on Saturday. Picture: Kena Betancur / AFP

The President-elect sat ringside with Musk. Picture: Kena Betancur/AFP

It comes days after Trump announced Musk, the wealthiest man on Earth, will lead a new US government efficiency group tasked with cutting federal waste alongside businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said in a statement on the “Department of Government Efficiency (’DOGE’)” a tongue-in-cheek reference to an internet meme and cryptocurrency.

He said the department “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” a move that could allow Musk to avoid disclosing his financial holdings.

Trump joked last week he coud not get Musk, who became a vocal ally during his campaign, to leave his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“He likes this place, I can’t get him out of here,” Trump said at a donor event at the estate. “I like having him here as well. He’s done a fantastic job, an incredible mind.

RFK Jr and Trump at the UFC. Picture: X@SpeakerJohnson

Trump’s top team

Trump began shaping his new administration this week with a series of relatively mainstream Republican choices, including conservative Florida senator and foreign policy hawk Marco Rubio for secretary of state.

Among the most controversial selections were lawyer general pick Matt Gaetz, a former congressman once investigated for alleged sex trafficking, as well as Fox News host and National Guard veteran Pete Hegseth, who was nominated to lead the Pentagon despite a thin CV.

Trump has also nominated fracking magnate and climate change sceptic Chris Wright as energy secretary.

Like Wright, Hegseth and Gaetz will require approval from the Republican-dominated Senate where Trump has warned politicians not to stand in his way or even skip the oversight process all together.

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine sceptic and conspiracy theorist, has been nominated to be the new health secretary.

If approved by the Senate, which Trump’s Republican Party controls, the 70-year-old will take over the Health and Human Services Department, a mammoth institution with a budget of close to $2 trillion.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. been nominated to be the new health secretary. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty

Kennedy, a scion of the famous political family who is popularly known as RFK Jr., is a longtime environmental campaigner who abandoned a fringe bid for the presidency to endorse Trump against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

In a statement explaining his choice, Trump echoed many of Kennedy’s talking points, saying “Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation.”

The nomination could meet opposition, given Kennedy’s history of promoting medical conspiracy theories - including the disproven claim that childhood vaccines cause autism - and saying that the Covid-19 vaccine was deadly.

He is also burdened by a string of colourful and even bizarre stories from his personal life.

These include his statement that a parasitic worm once entered his “brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

An admission this year that he was behind the long-unsolved mystery of a dead bear dumped in New York’s Central Park a decade ago raised eyebrows.

– With AFP

Originally published as ‘Avengers’: Trump, Musk entourage divides internet