Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and the world’s biggest internet troll, posted and then deleted a comment over the weekend in which he seemingly wondered about the lack of assassination attempts on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, following what authorities said was a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Then he claimed he was merely joking, and insisted that the joke would have been extremely funny in context.
Musk was responding to a user on X who wrote, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” The X owner, who has endorsed the ex-president, replied: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post included a thinking-face emoji.
Not surprisingly, the social media musing drew intense backlash. In a not-very-helpful pair of follow-ups on Monday, Musk wrote: “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.” In another, he said: “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”
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In reality, the “lesson” Musk should have learned is that it’s beyond the pale to seemingly suggest it’s strange that no one has attempted to assassinate specific individuals, particularly given the reach of his account, which is followed by more than 197 million people. Aside from that, one wonders who made up the collection of people originally on the receiving end of Musk’s “hilarious” joke, and what context he thinks would have improved the reaction of your average X user.
In a statement, the White House called Musk’s post “irresponsible” and echoed remarks in which Biden and Harris said there is no room for political violence in the United States. “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Musk is, of course, no stranger to creepy, outrageous social media posts. Last week, after Taylor Swift endorsed Harris and signed her post “Childless Cat Lady,” the Tesla CEO wrote: “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”
