The launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket into space grabbed eyeballs across the world, including those of US President Donald Trump. Trump took to Twitter to congratulate SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the achievement.
Now, in a fake image that has gone viral, Musk is seen responding to Trump's congratulatory tweet with, "I'm from South Africa, you dumba**."
Whereas in actuality, Musk thanked Trump for his message and there weren’t any expletives used.
According to the fact-checking website Snopes, a page named Blue Tsunami shared the fake image on Facebook, but later deleted it and also apologised for it.
The Snopes report further indicated that this fabrication needs to be seen in a context wherein the US has been witnessing debates regarding the status of ‘Dreamers’, as well as Trump's alleged "shithole countries" remark. Trump's antagonistic stand towards immigrants has made people draw attention to the contributions made by immigrants in the various facets of the American society.
Notably, Elon Musk was born in South Africa and had moved to Canada and then the USA in his student days.
People See Trump’s Praise of Elon Musk as Ironic
Keeping aside the fake tweet, several people on social media saw Trump's praise of Elon Musk as ironic, considering the former's stand on immigration.
The 23-story tall Falcon Heavy roared off its launch pad at 3:45 pm EST on 6 February at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral , from the same site used by NASA's towering Saturn 5 rockets to carry Apollo missions to the moon more than 40 years ago.
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