Well, buckle up, folks, because Phoenix Mercury guard Natasha Cloud decided to wade into the political deep end this week, and—spoiler alert—she didn’t hold back. After the passage of a stopgap funding bill narrowly avoided a government shutdown, Cloud took aim at none other than Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and, well, billionaires in general.
Now, let’s set the stage here. The original bipartisan funding bill was supposed to be a straightforward affair—extend current government funding levels until March 14 and avoid a chaotic shutdown. But like most things in Washington, it got messy. Hardline Republicans balked at provisions they considered extraneous—things like pay raises for lawmakers and healthcare policy tweaks—and when Musk and Trump started throwing their weight around, things really went off the rails.
The bill was scrapped, chaos ensued, and only after some serious political theater did a revised version pass the House. Crisis averted… for now.
Enter Natasha Cloud. Days later, she jumped on X (formerly Twitter) with a post that lit up social media like a Christmas tree. “So when y’all gone tell Elon to go back to Africa?” she wrote. Yikes. Not exactly a diplomatic opening line. But she wasn’t done.
Cloud continued, “I’m so glad ALL these billionaires have no idea how the 3 branches of government work….or how a bill gets passed into law. Shoutout to the 38 Republicans who shot the bill down in the House while being threatened & blackmailed.”
So when y’all gone tell Elon to go back to Africa?
— Natasha Cloud (@T_Cloud4) December 22, 2024
It’s clear Cloud wasn’t in the mood to play nice. And to be fair, she’s no stranger to speaking her mind. She’s been outspoken on everything from women’s rights to racial justice, and she’s certainly not afraid to mix it up on social media.
But here’s the thing—Cloud’s comments land in the middle of a political moment where frustration with billionaires and their outsized influence on policy is boiling over. Whether it’s Musk’s brash social media presence, Trump’s gravitational pull over conservative politics, or the broader conversation about wealth inequality, billionaires have become the go-to lightning rods for just about every major grievance in American life.
And while Cloud’s delivery may have been, let’s say, unfiltered, her frustrations echo a sentiment shared by plenty of Americans. The intersection of wealth, politics, and power has created a system where it often feels like a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals can tip the scales—sometimes without even stepping foot in a voting booth.
But let’s not forget—this funding bill didn’t just collapse because billionaires weighed in. There were real ideological divides at play here, with hardliners in Congress unwilling to sign off on what they saw as a flawed deal. And while Trump and Musk certainly added fuel to the fire, they weren’t the ones casting the votes on the House floor.
Cloud also revisited themes she’s talked about before, lamenting deep-rooted issues of racism, misogyny, and systemic inequality in America. “Racism, misogyny, and hatred of women are so deeply rooted into everything that is America. Until we fix the roots…it will never grow.”