Elon Musk’s most controversy-packed moments of 2024 so far
We’re only eight months into the year, but the headline-grabbing CEO of X, Elon Musk, has already been involved in an astounding number of controversies.
From getting into online debates about slurs to a high-profile clash with his trans daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, and being named in a lawsuit brought by Olympic gold medal boxer Imane Khelif, it’s been a lot.
Here’s all the controversies the billionaire tech mogul has been involved in so far.
Musk slammed Green Day for changing song lyrics to call out Donald Trump
A mere two days into the year, Musk made headlines by attacking the rock band Green Day.
Green Day changed the lyrics of their hit song “American Idiot” to directly reference Donald Trump during a New Year’s Eve performance.
Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong called out Trump supporters by changing the lyrics from “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda.”
MAGA stands for Make America Great Again and was first used by former President Trump and his supporters during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
Musk accused the band of going from “raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”
He helped to spread anti-trans misinformation about a school shooting
A tragic shooting at an Iowa high school led to right-wing influencers, including Musk, Donald Trump Jr. and Libs of TikTok, spreading misinformation about the shooters.
An attacker opened fire on students on January 4 at a high school near Des Moines, Iowa, leaving one sixth grade student dead and seven others injured.
Libs of TikTok claimed that the shooter, identified as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, was a “trans genderfluid terrorist” before alleging that trans people are “extremists” and a “serious threat”.
The post also said that the “modern LGBTQ+ movement is radicalising” young people “into becoming violent extremists”.
Musk amplified the post by replying with two exclamation marks and responded to another right-wing post that claimed the Iowa mass shooter was trans and suggesting that such incidents were “happening a lot”.
He claimed that “cis” is a “heterophobic word”
Just 11 days into the year, Musk wrote on X: “Cis is a heterophobic word. Shame on anyone who uses it.”
This wasn’t the first time Musk has said this but since then, users of the X platform have since seen tweets that contain the word “cis” or “cisgender” have their visibility restricted, with some users even saying they had their accounts suspended as a result.
The term “cisgender” is not a slur and has nothing to do with heterosexuality.
Cisgender is defined as a term used to describe “a person whose gender matches the body they were born with.”
He called the Oscars a “woke contest”
During the 2024 Oscars in March, Musk tweeted his disdain for the ceremony by describing the entire thing as a “woke contest”.
Writing on X, Musk said: “Winning an Oscar now just means you won the woke contest.”
In another post, he wrote: “When an award is diluted, everyone knows, including those who received it, and it no longer commands respect.”
He did not specify which awards were the “woke” ones in question.
Musk cancelled gay journalist Don Lemon’s X show after an interview
Musk abruptly cancelled Don Lemon’s new talk show, hosted on X, just hours after he was interviewed by the former CNN anchor.
Lemon announced in March that Musk ended the deal to host The Don Lemon Show on X after the billionaire texted him “contract terminated.”
This came just hours after Lemon and Musk filmed an interview together, with Musk writing on X that the journalist’s show “lacked authenticity.”
Lemon said in response that the interview had been a “good conversation” with “respectful and wide-ranging” questions.
“Clearly, [Musk] felt differently. His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me,” Lemon said.
Media Matters for America, a non-profit media watchdog, announced a round of layoffs back in May that they said were linked to the financial strain caused by a lawsuit filed by Musk.
Elon Musk launched what he called a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against the non-profit after Media Matters reported that there was a litany of “pro-Nazi content” on X alongside corporate ads from Apple, Bravo, Oracle, Xfinity, and IBM.
Media Matters went on to say that Musk was continuing “his descent into white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theories” and their report led to several companies suspending their advertising on X.
Musk said that he was filing the lawsuit to target “Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company”, calling the organisation “pure evil.”
Media Matters said that the “legal assault” from Musk led to the layoffs, which were to “ensure that we are sustainable, sturdy, and successful for whatever lies ahead.”
Musk considered removing the “groomer” slur from X’s hate speech guidelines
Musk appeared to suggest that he was considering removing “groomer” from the guidelines after a right-wing political pundit and self-proclaimed “gender-ideology” opponent, Billboard Chris, complained that his post using the “groomer” slur had been flagged as hateful.
The post in question claimed that a video of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team mascot Gritty raising an LGBTQ+ flag was being used to “groom children.”
In response to Chris’ complaint, Musk said that he was “fixing” the issue.
The slur falsely equates LGBTQ+ people with paedophilia and is used often to attack the community as a whole.
Musk claimed his trans child was “killed by the woke mind virus”
In July, Musk claimed that he was “tricked” into allowing his trans child, Vivian Jenna Wilson, to take puberty blockers.
In an interview with Jordan Peterson on July 22, Musk said that Wilson no longer speaks to him and that she was “killed [by the] woke mind virus”.
He also said that those promoting gender-affirming care should face jail sentences.
Musk continually misgendered his daughter throughout the interview, and later was berated online by Wilson, who said that the comments stemmed from him attending “the Milo Yiannopoulos school of gay stereotypes” and insinuated that Musk was a dead-beat dad.
Musk’s former partner, and the mother of three of his children, Grimes tweeted her support for Wilson: “I love and am forever endlessly proud of Vivian.”
Musk unfollowed her after the show of support.
He mocked Kamala Harris for sharing her pronouns and describing her appearance
Musk is notoriously against pronouns, and this was made blatantly clear when a video of the Democratic presidential candidate and current vice president Kamala Harris sharing her pronouns resurfaced.
The clip was originally posted two years ago and shows Harris welcoming a committee to the White House and describing herself to a room full of people. She said: “I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.”
This came just days after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Harris to be the Democratic candidate.
Musk shared the clip, seemingly mocking her for describing herself in that way, and captioned it with: “Imagine four years of this…”
What he failed to mention was that Harris was at an event for the visually impaired and near-sighted in the clip, and she was describing herself for their benefit.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump sat down for a two-hour-long interview
Given his criticism of Kamala Harris, it probably comes as no surprise that the billionaire mogul is not a Democrat.
In fact, he has already endorsed Trump for president and most recently sat down with the former President for an interview on X.
The controversial and at times baffling interview marked Trump’s return to the platform, during which he attacked Harris in the usual fashion.
Musk called Trump “incredibly inspiring” in the face of the assassination attempt he faced earlier this year, while Trump complimented Musk for his history of firing people.
During the widespread, right-wing anti-immigration riots that occurred in the UK earlier this month, Musk wrote on X that “civil war is inevitable.”
His comment was condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with a spokesperson saying that “there is no justification for comments like that.”
“What we’ve seen in this country is organised illegal thuggery which has no place on our streets or online. We’re talking about a minority of thugs that do not speak for Britain, and in response to it we’ve seen some of the best of our communities coming out to clean up the mess and disruption,” they continued.
Musk also shared misinformation about the riots, claiming that the rioters would be sent to “detainment camps.” This was not the case.
Musk has now been named in a cyberbullying lawsuit
Musk is known to be extremely litigious, however now the tables have turned. Olympic boxer Imane Khelif has filed a legal complaint naming Elon Musk and JK Rowling overs “acts of aggravated cyber harassment”.
Khelif won gold in Olympic boxing in early August, but the victory was bittersweet after a row about her gender and eligibility to compete in the women’s boxing event.
The International Olympic Committee said her including in the event was “not a transgender issue” as she was born female and identifies as a female, meeting all eligibility requirements, Khelif became the target of transphobic and vitriolic comments from across the world.
Khelif faced abuse calling her a “man” and a “cheater” who was taking up space in women’s events.
These comments came from Rowling, Musk, and other high-profile figures like Donald Trump, Riley Gaines, and Logan Paul.
Next to a photo of Khelif after she beat Italy’s Angela Carini, Rowling wrote: “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”
Musk meanwhile shared a post from Gaines, who is a swimmer, in which she claimed that “men don’t belong in women’s sports” and agreed with her by writing: “Absolutely.”
“JK Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others. Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution,” Khelif’s lawyer told Variety.
